Foreign Secretary says UK will ‘tread carefully’ in relations with Iran

PanARMENIAN.Net - Britain is right to work towards good relations with Iran but should "tread carefully", Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has said, ahead of talks with President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran, BBC News reports.

Despite a "deep legacy of distrust" Iran is "too important a player" to leave in isolation, Hammond said.

The two countries could also work together to tackle the Islamic State group, he told BBC Radio 4's Today.

The talks come after the British embassy in Tehran reopened on Sunday, Aug 23.

The embassy was closed in 2011 after it was stormed by protesters during a demonstration against sanctions.

Hammond is the first UK Foreign Secretary to visit Iran since 2003.He said Britain and Iran had a "difficult history", but relations had been steadily getting better and reopening diplomacy was a "sensible way forward".

"Yes, we should tread carefully. There is a deep legacy of distrust on both sides, and we have major areas where we have very substantial policy differences, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be talking.We do see eye to eye on the need to interdict the opium traffic between Afghanistan and Europe, we do see eye to eye on the need to challenge Isil [also known as Islamic State]," he said.

He was "not blind" to areas of contention, including Iran's human rights record, but the UK would not be able to influence such issues unless it opened a dialogue with the country's leaders, he said, according to the BBC.

Hammond's visit and the reopening of the embassy come weeks after Iran reached a deal with six world powers aimed at curbing its nuclear program.

Initially, the embassy will be headed by a charge d'affaires, Ajay Sharma, but Hammond said an agreement on upgrading to full ambassador status is expected to be reached in the coming months.

The Foreign Secretary acknowledged there were no guarantees the Iranian regime would not pursue a nuclear weapons program in the future, but "you have to make a judgment".

"My judgment is that whatever Iran has or hasn't been doing in the past, the regime, the Iranian people, have come to the conclusion that pursuing, or being believed to pursue, an illegal military nuclear program just imposes too great a cost on Iran," he said.

An Iran that was no longer isolated was "the best bet for the future", he said.

In November 2011 Iran announced it was expelling the UK's ambassador in retaliation for British support for tougher sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program.

Hundreds of protesters stormed embassy compounds two days later, smashing windows, torching cars and burning union jacks. The UK responded by closing the Iranian embassy in London later that month.

However, following the election of Rouhani and an agreement on how to deal with Iran's nuclear program, the then Foreign Secretary William Hague proposed the reopening of the embassy in June last year.

Since then, the reopening has been held up by technical problems over visa policy and communications equipment, Hammond has said.