Majid Takht Ravanchi, Deputy Foreign Minister for American and European Affairs told reporters on Saturday that Iran would not seek promoting the diplomatic relations with the Britain, and that current relations would be limited to charge d'affaires level. “On Sunday, with the opening of both embassies in Tehran and London, only nonresident states of both charge d’affaires will be changed to one of the resident, and they will settle in the embassy building to attend to their duties,” he said.
“British embassy will start to issue travel and other types of visa only after the raising the number of its staff in Tehran; Iran’s embassy in London will act in parallel as well,” he told reporters. On the possibility of payment of damage inflicted upon British embassies by the storing of the embassy in 2011, Takht Ravanchi did not rule out such a payment.
Ajay Sharma is British nonresident charge d’affaires in Tehran. His counterpart in London is Hassan Habibollhazadeh, which are both to resume embassy service. Philip Hamond, British Foreign Secretary will visit Tehran on Sunday and will reopen the embassy after 4 years of diplomatic inactivity.