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The source said on Thursday that the reopening will take place during a visit by UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond to Tehran on Sunday.
The reopening of the embassy is seen as the biggest shift in the West's policies toward Iran following the nuclear conclusion between Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries - the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany - on July 14.
Hammond will be Britain’s first top diplomat to visit the Iranian capital in nearly 14 years. He will reportedly be accompanied on his trip by a number of business leaders.
According to the British media, the Iranian embassy in London will be reopened at the same time. The reports say a new British ambassador has already been chosen but not announced officially.
Iran and Britain severed their diplomatic ties in November 2011. The British embassy was closed after hundreds of Iranian university students staged a protest, pulling down the UK flag and demanding the expulsion of the British ambassador.
Following the incident, Britain announced not only the withdrawal of its diplomatic staff from Tehran but also the closure of the Iranian embassy in London.
In October 2013, Iran and Britain agreed to appoint non-resident chargés d’affaires as a first step toward resuming diplomatic ties.
originally posted by: smurfy
Didn't they raise the Union Jack at that embassy a week ago?
originally posted by: stumason
a reply to: intrptr
The UK had an embassy there until 2011 and only closed it due to the Iranians "allowing" "students" to storm the building, leading to it's closure and a cooling of relations.
The Islamic Republic
In Embassy in London was overtaken by six-man terrorist team held the building for six days until the hostages were rescued by a raid by the SAS. After the Revolution of Iran in 1979, Britain suspended all diplomatic relations with Iran. Britain did not have an embassy until it was reopened in 1988.
During the Iran–Iraq war, Saddam Hussein acquired metal tubes from firms in the United Kingdom, intended for the Project Babylon supergun. All were intercepted by customs and excise and none ever reached Iraq. The suppliers were under the impression that their tubes would have been used in a pipeline project.
A year after the re-establishment of the British embassy in Tehran, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering Muslims across the world to kill British author Salman Rushdie. Diplomatic ties with London were broken off only to be resumed at a chargé d'affaires level in 1990.
Relations normalised in 1998 during President Mohammad Khatami's reformist administration, and Jack Straw became the first high ranking British politician to visit Tehran in 2001 since the revolution.
Relations suffered a setback in 2002 when David Reddaway was rejected by Tehran as London's ambassador, on charges of being a spy, and further deteriorated when Iran seized eight British sailors in Arvand River near the border with Iraq. The sailors were pardoned and attended a goodbye ceremony with president Ahmadinejad shortly after they were released.
Linky
originally posted by: stumason
a reply to: intrptr
Such as?
And how does that "terror bombing" compare to the actions of your beloved Russia? Far more dead in Chechnya than either Iraq or Afghanistan combined...
People in glass houses and all that... But all of this is, of course, off topic…
Yeah, I know you're not, but you are a vocal supporter of them and that is evident from around ATS. It is also why you have the view you do of the West/NATO.
In answer to your question though, not that much. We only have a squadron of Tornado's in theatre at this time and they have only carried out a limited number of sorties.