Britain is vowing to deny safe passage to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange despite Ecuador’s decision to grant him political asylum. Assange remains inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he has stayed for almost two months in attempt to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over sex crime accusations. Assange’s lawyers say he fears Sweden will then extradite him to the United States to face charges over the leaking of secret U.S. military and diplomatic files. On Thursday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Assange would be arrested if he left the embassy.

William Hague: “We are disappointed by the statement by Ecuador’s foreign minister today that Ecuador has offered political asylum to Julian Assange. Under our law, with Mr. Assange having exhausted all options of appeal, the British authorities are under a binding obligation to extradite him to Sweden. We must carry out that obligation, and of course we fully intend to do so. The Ecuadorean government’s decision this afternoon does not change that in any way, nor does it change the current circumstances in any way.”

Britain has also threatened to raid the Ecuadorean embassy in order to arrest Assange within a week.