Britain makes first diplomatic visit to Iran for two years

Britain makes first diplomatic visit to Iran for two years 

theguardian.com  04-Dec-13 

Britain's newly appointed chargé d'affaires has travelled to Iran in the first diplomatic visit by a UK envoy since London severed all but nominal ties with the Islamic republic two years ago after the storming of its embassy in Tehran. 

In a significant move towards upgrading bilateral relations and the eventual goal of reopening embassies in respective capitals, the UK's foreign office last month named the head of its Iran department, Ajay Sharma, as its non-resident chargé d'affaires for Iran. Tehran also named Mohammad-Hassan Habibollahzadeh as Sharma's counterpart. 

Speaking about the meeting, Sharma said: "I had a good first visit back to Tehran today and want to thank the Iranian authorities, particularly my counterpart Mr Habibollahzadeh, for facilitating the trip. I held detailed and constructive discussions with the Iranian ministry of foreign affairs about taking forward our bilateral relationship on a step by step and reciprocal basis. I also visited our embassy compounds to assess the damage caused in 2011. 

"I intend to visit Iran regularly to continue the step by step process of improving relations between our two countries." 

Habibollahzadeh told state news agencies in Iran on Tuesday that Sharma was due to visit British diplomatic compounds in Tehran upon arriving in the Islamic republic. 

"In the first step, the British non-resident chargé d'affaires will travel to Tehran on Tuesday along with a delegation to visit [the UK's diplomatic] facilities and holdtalks with the Iranian foreign ministry's officials," Habibollahzadeh was quoted as saying by the state Irna news agency. 

"In the next phase, I will travel to London as part of a delegation to assess the situation of the Islamic republic's [diplomatic] buildings and study ways to improve consular services to Iranians," he told Irna, adding that he will also hold direct talks with British officials. 

Sharma, who has previously served as deputy head of UK's mission in Tehran, participated in the nuclear negotiations in Geneva last month which ended with a historic agreement between Tehran and six world powers. 

The embassies still remain closed in London and Tehran and Sharma is based in the UK but is given the task to regularly travel to Iran. 

In November 2011, an angry mob stormed the British embassy in Tehran and its separate residential compound, the Qolhak Gardens. The attacks provoked a diplomatic crisis between Tehran and London with the UK immediately withdrawing all diplomatic staff from Tehran and ordering the expulsion of Iranian diplomats from the UK, shutting down Tehran's embassy in London. 

Iran's foreign ministry at the time issued an apology, implying that the attack happened without the knowledge of the government. Whether the mob had high-level backing from the authorities is still unclear but Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also reprimanded those who took part, saying their activity "was not right". Four commanders of Iran's informal Basij militia who were involved in the embassy attack were dismissed. 

Since the election of Hassan Rouhani as Iran's new president, replacing hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and last month's historic agreement struck in Geneva, Tehran and London have embarked on the road to restored diplomatic ties. 

David Cameron spoke to Rouhani on the telephone a few weeks ago, becoming the first British prime minister to hold direct talks with an Iranian president in a decade.