TEHRAN – An Iranian Foreign Ministry official said on Saturday that Tehran’s diplomatic ties with London have not been severed and British Foreign Secretary William Hague even requested and held a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.

 

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast made the remarks during a televised interview broadcast live on Iranian television in reference to the meeting that Salehi held with Hague on the sidelines of a security conference in Kabul on June 14, which was the highest-level contact between the two countries since the incident that occurred at the British Embassy in Tehran in 2011. 

 

Britain’s Foreign Office reported on June 14: “Foreign Secretary William Hague met Iranian Foreign Minister Salehi briefly at the latter’s request in the margins of the Heart of Asia Conference on 14 June.” 

 

Mehmanparast said the fact that British officials announced that the Iranian side had requested the meeting “is a departure from diplomatic norms.” 

 

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman also stated, “After the ratification of the honorable Majlis calling for a reduction in the level of diplomatic ties between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the country of Britain and after the incident that occurred (in November 2011), the two countries’ embassies were actually closed, but diplomatic relations have not be severed. And various issues, such as protection of the interests of the two countries and consular rights of Iranian and British nationals, need to be clarified. 

      

“Therefore, the British side announced its readiness to hold a meeting with our country’s foreign minister through a third country, and a meeting was arranged on the sidelines of the Afghanistan conference.”

  

He added, “The negotiations were meant to determine how consular services should be provided to tens of hundreds of Iranians living in Britain, to emphasize our country’s legitimate right to use nuclear energy meant for peaceful purposes ahead of the Moscow talks (between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany on June 19), and to discuss developments in the region, including in Syria. And (Salehi’s) British counterpart was briefed on our country’s principled policies.” 

 

On November 29, 2011, after a demonstration held to protest against the British government’s hostile policies toward Iran in front of the British Embassy in Tehran, a number of students entered the British Embassy compound and pulled down the Union Jack. 

 

The demonstration was held to protest against the fact that Britain ordered all British financial institutions to stop doing business with Iranian financial institutions, including the Central Bank of Iran, on November 21.

 

On November 23, the Iranian parliament overwhelmingly approved a proposal calling for a reduction in the level of diplomatic and trade ties with Britain to a minimum level in response to the decision by the British government, and the ratification was endorsed by the Guardian Council on November 28.