British embassy in Tehran reopens four years after closure

The British embassy in Iran has reopened, nearly four years after it was closed. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond attended a ceremony in Tehran with Iranian diplomats to mark the reopening while Iran has also reopened its embassy in London. In London, former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw attended the opening of the Iranian embassy in South […]

The British embassy in Iran has reopened, nearly four years after it was closed.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond attended a ceremony in Tehran with Iranian diplomats to mark the reopening while Iran has also reopened its embassy in London.
In London, former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw attended the opening of the Iranian embassy in South Kensington.
The UK embassy was closed in 2011 after it was stormed by protesters during a demonstration against sanctions.
Mr Hammond is the first UK foreign secretary to visit Iran since 2003.
The reopening comes weeks after Iran reached a deal with six world powers aimed at curbing its nuclear programme.
At the ceremony Mr Hammond said the attack in 2011 had been “a low point” but since the election of President Hassan Rouhani things had “steadily improved, step by step”.
Earlier Mr Hammond told the BBC there was a “big deficit of trust” with Iran, and “major issues on which we have fundamental differences of view”.
“But the symbolic importance of deciding to reopen embassies in each other’s countries, is that we have chosen to talk to each other about those differences… to look for areas where our interests do align,” he said.