Former foreign secretary speaks out against 'damaging' decision, saying it handed victory to regime hardliners
Britain's former foreign secretary has said it was a mistake for the UK to close down its embassy in Tehran, as it handed a victory to hardliners within the regime and weakened Britain's influence and understanding of Iran.

William Hague withdrew British diplomats and shuttered the Tehran embassy after it was ransacked in 2011 by a mob, which he said had the backing of the regime. Iranian diplomats in London were also expelled.

Hague's predecessor, David Miliband, said the decision was "not just regrettable but damaging". Speaking in a discussion of the Iranian nuclear standoff at the Royal United Services Institute on Wednesday, Miliband said the closure of the embassy "handed a propaganda victory for the people responsible".

"The only people who have been helped by how this whole imbroglio has ended up are those with the worst intentions for Iranian-British relations," Miliband said. "We should have kept some diplomatic presence there, as we had an understanding of the country from the ground, which was really highly valued [by all our allies]."

He said he had no doubt Hague had acted in order to protect his staff but said his objections were "not about motives, but consequences". Miliband added that the decision to close down the embassy was announced just before a meeting of European foreign ministers, and argued that it would have been better to wait and act multilaterally.

"The best thing we can do when they point their finger at us is to multilateralise the issue and create uncertainty in Iranian minds of what the consequences will be."

The move was described as a reduction of ties to the lowest level rather than a formal severing of relations. The Swedish embassy hosts a UK interests section in Tehran and the Omani embassy performs the same function for Iran in London. British and Iranian officials still talk to each other at international meetings.

At the time of the closure Hague said there was no doubt the regime had been behind the mob attack, adding: "If any country makes it impossible for us to operate on their soil, they cannot expect to have a functioning embassy here."

A Foreign Office source said: "When you have a situation in which both embassy compounds were sacked by a state-sponsored mob, it was clearly the right decision to withdraw our people.

"Who does what is always opaque in terms of decision making in Tehran, but there was no doubt it was orchestrated by elements of the regime," the source added. "They could have turned it off at any time."

By The Guardian

 

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