British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond is to arrive in the Iranian capital, Tehran, for a two-day landmark visit to formally reopen the UK embassy following a few years of severed diplomatic ties.
During his stay in Tehran, the British foreign secretary will also hold talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani, among other officials.
It will be the first visit to Iran by a British foreign secretary since 2003.
Britain shut down its embassy in Tehran in November 2011 and withdrew its diplomatic staff after hundreds of Iranian students staged a protest outside the British embassy in Tehran against the expansion of UK sanctions on Iran, pulling down the UK flag and demanding the expulsion of the British ambassador.
In late November 2011, Iran’s parliament (Majlis) approved a bill to downgrade the diplomatic ties between Tehran and London to the level of chargé d'affaires, and limit all economic and cultural collaborations to the minimum level.
Nearly two years after their diplomatic ties were severed, Iran and Britain agreed in October 2013 to appoint non-resident chargés d’affaires as a first step toward reestablishment of their ties.
Hammond’s visit comes on the heels of visits by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni, Germany’s Vice Chancellor and Energy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, and EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, after Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries reached a nuclear agreement in mid-July.
Iran and the six countries – the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany – finalized the text of the nuclear agreement called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in Vienna, Austria, on July 14.
Under the JCPOA, limits will be put on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for, among other things, the removal of all economic and financial bans, against the Islamic Republic.
