November 15-2013
Britain and Iran announced Monday that they have revived diplomatic relations by the strange ploy of appointing non-resident charges d’affaires, two years after an angry mob ransacked the British embassy in Tehran.
It is a weird and probably unique arrangement since the whole point of having diplomats assigned is that they reside in the countries they are assigned to. But Britain is very concerned about possible physical assaults on its diplomats—hence the use of a “non-resident” charge d’affaires.
Britain’s Foreign Office said Ajay Sharma, currently the head of the ministry’s Iran department, would take up the post immediately and hoped to visit Tehran this month.
“I am very much looking forward to renewing direct UK contact with the Iranian government and society,” Sharma said in a statement. “This is very much in the interests of both our countries.” Sharma will travel regularly to Iran. He was the Number Two diplomat in the British embassy in Tehran in 2007 and 2008.
Iran’s Mehr news agency, meanwhile, said Tehran had appointed Mohammad-Hassan Habibollah as charge d’affaires to Britain, resident in Tehran.
It is assumed the two countries will re-open their embassies in London and Tehran with local employees staffing them—that is, Iranian employees in Tehran and British employees in London. It isn’t clear if they will be able to do anything other than the most routine consular chores, such as accepting applications for visas that will have to be sent to the home country for action.
Britain closed its embassy in Tehran in November 2011 after a rally against British sanctions grew violent and protesters scaled the walls, ransacked offices and burned buildings. Simultaneously with closing its own embassy, Britain expelled all Iranian diplomats from Britain.