UK urges Iran to keep relations with Britain

Britain has urged Tehran not to downgrade its relations with London, saying the calls to lower the level of ties between the two countries are “regrettable.”

The UK Foreign Office published Monday an open letter from Britain’s Ambassador to Tehran, Simon Gass, to a senior Iranian lawmaker in which the British official said any decision by Iranian parliament to downgrade relations with Britain “would be regrettable,” Reuters reported Monday.

The move comes as a number of Iranian parliament members urged the government in January to limit the relations with Britain due to London’s direct and indirect interference in Iran’s internal affairs.

“Considering the gross interference of the British government in the post-election developments, the Parliament (Majlis) has opted for lowering the level of ties between Tehran and London,” said Iranian MP Hossein Sobhani-Nia.

Tensions between Iran and Britain crept to public view after Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced that the country is thinking of breaking relations with Britain in some 12 working fields.

“After months of deliberation, the Tehran government has decided to limit its relations with Britain in various areas,” Mottaki said in an address to the 19th International Conference on the Persian Gulf in Tehran on January 18.

“There are 10-12 working fields between Iran and the UK. We are currently reviewing each area,” he continued, adding that the Islamic Republic would make a final decision about the issue.

In the letter to Alaeddin Boroujerdi, Chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s Foreign Policy and National Security Commission, Gass described as absurd newspaper reports that the UK embassy staff bribed demonstrators.

He added that it was “entirely untrue” that Britain and/or its embassy in Tehran were interfering in Iran’s domestic affairs.

Diplomatic relations between Iran and Britain have had many ups and downs in the years that followed the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The two countries first severed ties in 1989, shortly after the publication of the controversial book, The Satanic Verses, which sparked worldwide outrage in the late 1980s.

In September 1990, Iran and Britain resumed ties at a lower level, which was gradually increased to an ambassadorial level in the ensuing years. The two countries eventually restored full diplomatic relations after a visit by then-British Secretary Jack Straw to Iran in 2001.