Ecuador Gives Assange Citizenship, Worsening Standoff With Britain

QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuador announced on Thursday that it had granted citizenship to Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks co-founder who has been living in a tiny room in the South American country’s London embassy since seeking political asylum in 2012.

It was an extraordinary development in the prolonged diplomatic standoff, and came only hours after Britain said it had rejected a request by Ecuador to grant Mr. Assange diplomatic immunity so he could leave the embassy.

“Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice,” Britain’s Foreign Office said in a statement, adding that Britain was not in talks with Ecuador about the matter.

On Wednesday, Mr. Assange hinted that something was afoot when he tweeted a picture of himself wearing an Ecuadorean soccer jersey. Reuters reported that his name had been recorded in a civil registry of Ecuadorean citizens.

Mr. Assange sought refuge in the embassy after Sweden sought to have him arrested in connection with allegations of rape and assault in that country. Sweden is no longer seeking his extradition, but Mr. Assange has refused to leave. He says he fears Britain would extradite him to the United States to face charges relating to his involvement in multiple releases of documents that American officials say have damaged national security.

Mr. Assange has managed to wear out his welcome over the years, alienating many of his previous supporters, including Edward J. Snowden, the former American intelligence contractor who leaked documents about surveillance programs.

He also offended potential supporters in the Democratic Party by allowing WikiLeaks to become the conduit for emails hacked by Russia from the Democratic National Committee and leaked to harm the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton.

American intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian hackers working for the Kremlin carried out the intrusions, but Mr. Assange insists he did not know the source of the emails, under the working rules of WikiLeaks. He has denied working for Russia or any other government.

The United States attorney general, Jeff Sessions, has said that arresting Mr. Assange isa priority. “We have professionals that have been in the security business of the United States for many years that are shocked by the number of leaks, and some of them are quite serious,” he said last year.

When Swedish prosecutors dropped their effort to have Mr. Assange extradited last year, they said it was not for reasons of guilt or innocence but because they saw no hope of compelling him to leave the embassy.

The British police say, however, say he is still subject to arrest on charges of jumping bail. An there is a strong possibility that the United States has issued a secret arrest and extradition warrant for Mr. Assange in connection with his assistance to Chelsea Manning, the Army private who was convicted of revealing state secrets.

The decision to grant citizenship comes amid flurry of a activity suggesting that the Ecuadorean government is ramping up efforts to find a solution for Mr. Assange. The country’s foreign minister, María Fernanda Espinosa, said on Tuesday that it was looking for a third-party mediator who could broker a deal to allow Mr. Assange to leave the embassy.

“We’re considering, exploring the possibility of a mediation,” Ms. Espinosa said, according to Reuters. “No solution can be reached without international cooperation and without cooperation from the United Kingdom, which in addition has shown interest in finding a solution.”

On Thursday, Ms. Espinosa said that Mr. Assange had applied for citizenship on Sept. 16 and been granted it on Dec. 12. “What naturalization does is provide the asylum seeker another layer of protection,” she said. She said that Ecuador formally requested that Mr. Assange be given diplomatic status on Dec. 20 and that Britain rejected the request the following day.

Ms. Espinosa expressed irritation at recent news reports, saying she felt “obliged to make statements about a matter” that needed to “be managed with prudence and caution.” She said the decision to grant citizenship to Mr. Assange had been made after careful consideration of Ecuador’s obligations under its Constitution and under international law.

Ms. Espinosa also noted that the current government had inherited the problem from its predecessor. Rafael Correa, the president who decided to grant Mr. Assange asylum, was widely seen as wanting to burnish his credentials as a leftist leader who would not be cowed by the United States.

Mr. Correa left office in May after a decade as president. He was succeeded by Lenín Moreno, who although an ally of Mr. Correa’s has demonstrated little enthusiasm for Mr. Assange’s cause.

On Thursday, Ms. Espinosa said Ecuador was exploring a variety of possible resolutions to the dispute. She mentioned “dialogue with the United Kingdom” and mediation by other states or international organizations that could “facilitate a just, lasting and dignified resolution for all the involved parties.”

She said that Ecuador had “the best relations of friendship and cooperation” with Britain.

In a separate statement, the ministry said Mr. Assange had “committed to not intervening in affairs outside the scope of his asylum status,” which seemed an oblique reference to his penchant for creating a stir.

Greg Barns, a lawyer who advises Mr. Assange and WikiLeaks, said in a telephone interview from New Zealand that the situation was “intolerable” for his client and for Ecuador.

The embassy is in the affluent Knightsbridge section of London, but he said Mr. Assange had been effectively “imprisoned with no access to natural light and fresh air for a period of five and a half years.”

Britain and Sweden argue that by choosing to jump bail and seek asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy, Mr. Assange has effectively imprisoned himself.

Mr. Barns suggested that the Australian government would be an obvious third-party mediator, given that Mr. Assange is a citizen of Australia, which has excellent relations with Britain.

Maggy Ayala reported from Quito and Steven Erlanger from London. Reporting was contributed by Adam Baidawi from Melbourne, Australia; Marcelo Rochabrún from Lima, Peru; and Anne-Sophie Bolon, Michael Wolgelenter and Ceylan Yeginsu from London.

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