Britain eyes better ties as Tehran embassy reopens
Print Edition
BRITAIN’S foreign secretary reopened his country’s embassy in Tehran yesterday in a long-awaited step signalling better relations four years after a mob stormed the compound, forcing its closure.
Philip Hammond’s two-day trip comes five weeks after Britain and five other world powers struck a deal with Iran to end a 13-year dispute over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program.
He led a ceremony shortly after noon in the embassy garden with Ajay Sharma, the new charge d’affaires who will be Britain’s top diplomat in Tehran.
Iran’s embassy in London also reopened yesterday. The two nations are set to appoint ambassadors within months.
Hammond, the first British foreign secretary to visit Iran since Jack Straw in 2003, described the violence that shuttered the Tehran mission as “a low point” but said a new journey was beginning.
“Over the coming months, we will work to ensure that the nuclear agreement is a success, including by making sure that it is fully implemented by all sides,” Hammond said at the reopening.
“Through this embassy’s efforts we will support British trade and investment, once sanctions are lifted. That will bring benefits for Britain and the Iranian people.”
European officials have been quick to visit Iran since July 14, when the nuclear agreement with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US was announced in Vienna.
The deal will see the lifting of economic sanctions — imposed as punishment over Iran’s nuclear programme — in exchange for curbs on its atomic activities and a new inspections regime.
Iran’s leaders have always denied international allegations that they sought to develop a nuclear weapon, insisting the program is for peaceful energy and medical purposes.
The nuclear deal has sparked a flurry of interest from countries seeking to reconnect with the oil-rich Islamic republic, whose 78 million people are seen as an untapped market for many industries.
The thaw between Britain and Iran started with the June 2013 presidential election victory of Hassan Rouhani, a moderate who reached out to the West. Hammond is to meet him today.
“We have seen our relationship steadily improve, step by step,” Hammond said, mentioning Prime Minister David Cameron’s meeting with Rouhani in New York last autumn, the first at that level between the countries since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
“Last month’s historic nuclear agreement was another milestone, and showed the power of diplomacy, conducted in an atmosphere of mutual respect, to solve shared challenges,” Hammond added.
Following the 2011 embassy attack, Britain said it could not have happened without the tacit consent of the Iranian government at the time.
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