London to continue improving relationship with Tehran: New British envoy

The new British ambassador to Tehran Rob Macaire said his country continues improving relationship with Iran, particularly in the areas of trade and investment, AVA Diplomatic reports.

Macaire who is due to succeed Nicholas Hopton in May, told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) in London in an exclusive interview that he is delighted to be going to Tehran as the new British Ambassador.

‘I have a great fascination with Iran all through my diplomatic career; I have not served in Iran before, but I have dealt with the Middle East a lot and I am very much looking forward to representing my country in Tehran,’ said the new envoy.

Asked about the timing of the change, he replied, ‘I think the timing is good in the sense that we have moved forward in our bilateral relations a lot in the last 3 years since our embassies reopened.’

Britain is aware of the enormous role Iran has had in the region for centuries and its geopolitical importance, said Macaire, adding, ‘but there is a lot more for me to learn and look forward to arrive in Tehran.’

On the current level of bilateral relations between Tehran and London, the new British ambassador said, ‘We’ve made a lot of progress, obviously we have diplomatic relations between our countries; we have fully functioning embassies; we have full visa services in both capitals; we have a lot of opportunities in trade and increase in contacts on the cultural, tourism and people to people level, so I think things are going well.’

Relationship can always be improved as Macaire put it but added that there are certainly differences between the two governments.

He said, ‘I believe that more and deeper dialogue can make difference to those, but we shouldn’t underestimate their importance.’

“While we want to talk to Iran in particular about the security and peace in the region where Iran has a very important role to play, we would certainly need to focus on bilateral agenda, for example, the British government is very keen to see a resolution to consular cases which until they are resolved are an obstacle in our bilateral relations” said Macaire.

Asked if he is suggesting that there are going to be some kind of cooperation between Iran and the UK to bring stability in the region, he said,’ Iran has a very important role to play and we believe that it’s important that, that role is carried out constructively.’

‘There are issues in which Britain have concerns but we believe that by working in a dialogue with Iran we can make progress on some of these issues.’

Regarding trade relationship, Macaire appears very optimistic and said, ‘I spent a lot of time of the last few months talking to British businesses and banks about trade and investment with Iran. I can tell you that there is a huge amount of enthusiasm and interest on both sides to increase that trading relationship.’

Citing the embassies closure over 4 years, he added, ‘We are therefore starting from a relatively low base but over the last year, trade has more than doubled and we have increased the size of the team in our embassy supporting trade, from nothing up to 9 people now.’

‘There is a significant effort going on to improve trade relationship between the two countries and there are lots more that we can do and there is a great potential.’

Asked about his plans to develop trade relationships, he stressed that he would do whatever he can “to help to improve the environment for trade and investment link between our countries.“

“I think as everyone knows there is a challenge for companies wanting to do business in Iran because of the attitude of the international banks who are concerned and nervous about impact of primary sanctions. But, we have had from the British government side a continued dialogue with the banks and will continue to do that; it is our position to encourage greater trade and there is more that I think can be done” said Macaire.

The new British ambassador says that the embassy will help to make British companies and banks to better understand the market in Iran. At the same time he expects Iran to take positive measures by improving banking standards to make trade much easier.

Asked about suspicion amongst the Iranians towards Britain, Macaire says, ‘I am a great observer of history. I think history is very important and I think that it’s important to understand where we come from to see where we are going. I think that the history between our two countries should be understood properly by everyone and we shouldn’t try to brush it away and we should be honest about it.’

‘Iran has a very young population and tend to look forward rather than back and that’s where I think our efforts should focus in trying to improve things moving forward.’

Asked if he agrees that improving trade relationship between the two countries and long-term investment projects in Iran could overcome the mistrust towards Britain common in Iran, Macaire said, ‘I think that trade links and investment links are an excellent way of building links between people as well as between governments and I think that in the case of Iran there is a lot of opportunity to do that.’

As for the difficulty in obtaining British visa for Iranians, Macaire said, ‘I think we have made a lot of progress on visas. We have moved from not having a service in Tehran to having full visa service. We have recently considerably increased the number of appointments that we offer in Tehran. I would like to see that increase further. I would like to see more opportunities.’

He said he wanted to see good service for legitimate travelers, adding that it’s important that we are able to cooperate with the Iranian authorities on those who break the rules and that’s true for every country; Iran is not different there.

Asked why genuine cases such as those who purely wish to visit their families, experience visa refusal, the new British ambassador claimed that the embassy offers a very good and fair visa service but if some people are rejected, it means that they don’t meet the criteria.

At the same time he says that he is keen to demystify the work of the embassy and to be open in diplomatic efforts. He said that there are sometimes misunderstanding and suspicion about the work of embassy therefore demystifying is important for him.

Asked if there will be delegations to Tehran in the near future he said, ‘As you know, our foreign secretary visited in December and we were very pleased to host deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi here two months ago. I hope that either the foreign secretary or another minister will be visiting Iran before long for bilateral talks.

Moving on to the topic of JCPOA, he discussed the importance of the deal by saying, ‘I think we have made our position very clear about this; for the UK the JCPOA is very significant, it’s a political diplomatic achievement and one that we are determined to support.’

“We remain strongly supportive of JCPOA; it’s essential that all parties adhere to their commitment under that agreement. It’s obviously important that Iran continues to allow full access to IAEA. As IAEA has confirmed the agreement is working, we believe it is important and a significant benefit to peace and stability in the region. We have been working with all of the parties to the agreement and our allies and particularly since President Trump’s speech in January and we are working to ensure that the agreement is able to be taken forward,“ said Macaire.

Asked how Britain will defend JCPOA with the assignment of John Bolton, President Trump’s national security advisor who is not in favour of JCPOA, he said, ‘Our position on the agreement remains unchanged. I am sure that our foreign secretary will make that case to the new secretary of state as he had done in the past.’

“We believe that the JCPOA is working; IAEA has endorsed that at its series of reports. That does not mean that there are no other issues. When we talk about other concerns that we have with for example activities in the region and ballistic missiles, these are outside the JCPOA, they are separate issues.’

Asked if he agree that resolving issues outside JCPOA at this juncture of time will upset the spirit of the agreement, the new British ambassador replied,’ I think we need to be clear that JCPOA is an agreement with set terms that we are signed up to and support it. The fact that there are issues outside that does not weaken the JCPOA or in anyway the spirit of it.’

He also said that it’s too hypothetical to assume Trump will withdraw from JCPOA, adding that Britain is of course prepared for all scenarios.

Asked if there is the possibility of a scenario where Iran, E3, China and Russia stick with JCPOA without the US in the deal, he said, ‘Again I think you are talking about hypotheticals here. We support the JCPOA; we think it is very important and we will do whatever we can to preserve that agreement.’

Further in the discussion, he reiterated the important role of Iran in the region and said that Tehran has legitimate security concerns.

Macaire said that Britain thinks that it is important that Iran use its role sensibly and there is an active and constructive dialogue about this.

“There are certainly many areas” as he put it that Britain and Iran“ share interests including on defeating terrorism where Iran has made significant effort “

Reports that missiles fired from Yemen by the Houthis to Saudi Arabia may have come from Iran are some of the areas which is a matter of concern for Britain, said the ambassador.

Asked whether selling arms to Saudi Arabia which has led to the disastrous war in Yemen and killed thousands of civilians is not contrary to arms trade treaties he said,’ Absolutely not. The situation in Yemen is extremely serious. It’s a serious humanitarian situation where the UN said that three fourths of people are in need of humanitarian assistance. We strongly believe there is no military solution to that crisis and there is only a political solution.’

He claimed that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman committed himself to a political solution when he came to visit London last month. Macaire added that the British government will work with the Saudis, the UAE, and the US to pursue a political solution to that crisis.

In terms of arm sales, Macaire claims Britain has one of the toughest regimes of export licenses in the world and will not sell weapons where it believes there is a clear risk that they might be used in a serious violation of International Humanitarian Law.

He said that the British government is working intensively on the political solution to the crisis in Yemen and that is the important thing that we can do.