Britain, Iran begin talks on normalization of relations

Britain and Iran have begun talks on the normalization of relations between the two countries that were broken off in 2011, British Foreign Secretary William Haig said here Monday upon the end of talks with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif. Haig said his talks with Javad Zarif marked a first fruitful step towards rehabilitation of bilateral relations. Diplomatic contacts between Britain and Iran were practically reduced to naught in November 2011 when London closed the embassy in Teheran and called off all of its diplomats accredited in the Islamic Republic in the wake of an attack of a crowd of students on the ambassadorial compound in Teheran. The attackers expressed their indignation over Britain’s move to impose new sanctions against their country. Teheran retaliated to the withdrawal of British diplomatic staff almost immediately by revoking its own diplomats from London. Later on, Iran delegated the powers to represent its interests in Britain to Oman and the British authorities gave the respective powers to Switzerland.