Britain Says It Is Ready to Reopen Embassy in Iran

LONDON — Underscoring its warming relations with Iran, Britain announced Tuesday that “the circumstances are right” to reopen the British Embassy in Tehran and that it would establish a small presence there as soon as is practical.

Full diplomatic ties were suspended in 2011 after attacks on Britain’s diplomatic compound in Tehran, but relations have been improving ever since a change in political leadership in Iran last year and progress in international talks on Iran’s nuclear program.

The pace of the thaw appears to have been intensified significantly by a shared interest in containing Sunni militants after their recent military successes in Iraq. On Monday, the office of Prime Minister David Cameron said that Foreign Secretary William Hague had spoken about the crisis in Iraq to his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, over the weekend.

“I have therefore now decided the circumstances are right to reopen our embassy in Tehran,” said a ministerial statement released on the website of the British Parliament before Mr. Hague was to speak there. “There are a range of practical issues that we will need to resolve first. However it is our intention to reopen the Embassy in Tehran with a small initial presence as soon as these practical arrangements have been made.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/18/world/europe/britain-moves-toward-reopening-embassy-in-iran.html