[caption id="attachment_109171" align="alignright" width="213"] A view of Iran's Majlis[/caption]

TEHRAN (FNA)- A high-ranking delegation from the Iranian parliament left Tehran this morning to visit London at the formal invitation of former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

The Iranian and British parliamentarians are to discuss problems facing the Iranian expatriates living in Britain, the expansion of parliamentary ties, and pursuing the problems in line with reopening the British Embassy (in Tehran) within the framework of international law.


Straw, the head of Britain-Iran parliamentary friendship group, who is also a Labor Party lawmaker for Blackburn, visited the Iranian capital in January, 2014 at the head of a delegation.


In July 2013, Straw urged London to seize the opportunity and improve ties with Tehran during the tenure of Iran's President Hassan Rouhani.


Tehran downgraded its diplomatic relations with London in November 2011 after the British government imposed political and economic sanctions against Iran, including cutting business ties and transactions with the Central Bank of Iran (CBI).


Iran and Britain shut down their diplomatic missions last year around Britain's repeated meddling with Iran's domestic affairs.


Iran recalled all its staff and closed its embassy in London in November 2011 after Britain recalled its diplomatic mission in Tehran due to massive protests in front of the British embassy complex by thousands of Iranian students who demanded a cut of ties with London.


The Iranian students' protests at the British mission in November 2011 came after the Iranian legislators in an open session of the parliament approved the bill of a law on downgrading relations with Britain. After the parliament approval, Iran expelled the British ambassador from Tehran.


The parliament approval came a week after the US and Britain targeted Iranian financial sectors with new punitive measures, including sanctions on Iran's Central Bank and petrochemical industry.


The sanction against CBI and Iran's petrochemical industry was adopted in a unilateral move by the US, Canada and Britain outside the UN Security Council as other council members, specially Russia and China, had earlier warned against any fresh punitive measure, including sanctions, against Iran.


By Fars News Agency