UK must rethink anti-Iran policies: Professor Marandi

A prominent analyst and academician says the United Kingdom must reconsider its hostile policies in a bid to help the normalization of ties between London and Tehran.

Mohammad Marandi told Press TV in an interview on Wednesday that Britain has been a leading supporter of “comprehensive sanctions against Iran.”

“I think… relations with the United Kingdom obviously will not be normalized any time soon,” he said in reaction to a decision by Iran and the UK to exchange charges d’affaires as a first step towards resuming diplomatic ties cut since 2011.

The stumbling block on the way of Iran-UK ties stems from “the policy of England to support comprehensive sanctions against Iran”, Professor Marandi said.

“I think the United Kingdom obviously wants to restore relations with Iran and wants to have an ambassador in the country, but at the same time it recognizes that Iranians are outraged at the sort of behavior the British have been showing towards ordinary Iranians,” he added.

Marandi blamed the death of Iranian patients due to the shortage of medication to the British policy of bullying European governments into adopting sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Iranian and British foreign ministers agreed on Tuesday to appoint non-resident charges d’affaires as a first step towards reopening of embassies.

The development followed the September meeting between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and British Foreign Secretary William Hague in New York.

In November 2011, hundreds of Iranian students staged a protest outside the British Embassy in Tehran and pulled down the UK flag. The relations were severed afterwards.

Marandi, however, said London is unlikely to “have the political will to really change their attitude towards Iran at this stage.”