US rules out opening embassy in Iran after UK move
“Over the coming months, we will work to ensure that the nuclear agreement is a success, including by making sure that it is fully implemented by all sides”, Hammond said.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who met Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran Monday, said the two countries shared common ground despite a “deep legacy of distrust”.
“These powers admitted that the reason for their pressure on us is our position on Israel”, he said.
Worldwide sanctions on Iran could start to be lifted as early as spring next year, Britain’s foreign secretary said on Monday, as Iran and the West rebuild ties and potentially open up billions of dollars of trade deals.
U.S. President Barack Obama has promised to exercise his veto if the U.S. Congress, dominated by Republicans opposed to the deal, rejects the agreement, which would start the process of lifting a raft of sanctions which have hurt Iran’s economy. “We should look to the future”, Rouhani said.
It happened with little fanfare, but Britain and Iran have reopened embassies in each other’s countries.
He also said that during the trip to Tehran, the first by a British foreign secretary since 2003, he detected a willingness to move on from “some very hard history”.
“Reopening our embassies is a key step to improved bilateral relations”, said Hammond. Italy’s foreign minister was quick to head to Tehran, too; the country is also in the forefront of cultural exchanges, lending four classical sculptures, including one from the Vatican Museums, to the National Museum of Iran in September.
Britain retaliated by expelling Iran’s diplomats and closed its diplomatic seat in Iran.
“This is a vast emerging market to open up, a vast frontier market: Iran is potentially something of an energy superpower”, Norman Lamont, a former British finance minister who now chairs the British Iranian Chamber of Commerce, told Reuters.
Protesters in 2011 smashed the large stone lion and unicorn on the gates at the ambassadorial residence, where in 1943 a dinner was held for Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin D. Roosevelt – the first meeting between the leaders of Britain, Russian Federation and the United States to discuss their strategy for winning World War Two.