“According to a Parliament’s act, improving relations between Tehran and London and appointing ambassadors do not contradict the law,” Boroujerdi said. “In such a situation where the Government has decided to upgrade relations, the British diplomat needs to be constantly monitored, since the UK has had a negative record both before and after the Islamic Revolution.”
“We must make sure that the UK will not overstep its boundaries through its ambassador and act strictly within the framework of political duties as defined by Vienna Convention and other international regulations,” he stressed.
Boroujerdi further noted the problems still affecting Iran and UK’s consular relations, adding “when the level of Tehran-London ties was improved to charge d'affaires, it was announced that Iranian citizens should go to other countries in order to obtain their UK visas, but this is not in steps with this level of relations.”
He went on to add, “as far as I know, the problem has not been fundamentally tackled. It should not be the case that we would give advantages to the UK and improve our relations to the level of ambassador, but Iranians still would have to travel to other countries to get their visas.”
The Iranian senior official also touched upon the selection of Hamid Baeidinejad, Director-General for Political and International Affairs of Iran's Foreign Ministry, to fill in the position of ambassador to UK, adding “Baeidinejad’s perfect command of the JCPOA, and his knowledge of the UK and US’s lack of commitment to agreements reached on the nuclear deal will hopefully enable him to take steps toward the realization of national interests.”
On September 5, the Islamic Republic of Iran named Hamid Baeidinejad, who had also been a senior member of the Iranian negotiating team with the 5+1 group of countries, as its new ambassador to Britain, while Nicholas Hopton was appointed as the new British ambassador to Tehran. Hopton had previously served as Britain's ambassador to Qatar and Yemen.
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