British foreign secretary Philip Hammond shakes hands with Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif in Tehran after reopening the UK embassy. PHOTO: AFP
It happened with little fanfare, but Britain and Iran have reopened embassies in each other’s countries. This marks the drawing of a line under what was a period of tension between the two countries. The British embassy in Tehran was closed after it was sacked four years ago following the UK deciding to support sanctions against Iran because of its persistence with a nuclear development programme. The suspicion was that Iran was seeking to develop weapons-grade plutonium, something it has consistently denied. Now, Iran has reached a deal with six of the major world powers, which is designed to curb its military ambition in terms of nuclear development, and the signing of the deal has rapidly unlocked a number of doors — not least the doors of the embassies in London and Tehran.
The British Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, presided at the Iranian end, the first UK foreign secretary to visit since 2003. He had a trade delegation with him. Other countries have been ahead of the UK by getting their trade delegations into Iran days after the signing of the agreement. It must be noted in this context that European nations are keen to import Iranian gas, as is Pakistan. If Pakistan is to benefit from the nuclear deal fallout, then it had better hurry as the Iranian gas supplies are not infinite.
The opening of embassies does not mean that all is sweetness and light between the UK and Iran, far from it. A trust deficit exists that will have to be bridged using formal diplomacy and the levers of trade to build with. The nuclear deal proved that diplomacy can be applied successfully even to the most intractable of problems. A lesson here as well for Pakistan and India, where the failure to maintain a dialogue even under the most trying of conditions, contributes in no small part to the stalemate that exists between us. London and Tehran will never be bosom friends — but they are now able to at least be in the same room together.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 25th, 2015.
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