“British People Know Not of Iranian’s Regret of UK’s Deed,” States Richard Bacon

Richard Michael Bacon is a British Conservative Party politician and the Member of Parliament (MP) for the South Norfolk constituency. He co-chaired the Parliamentary Friendship Group of Iran and the UK along with Jack Straw. Mr. Bacon has spared no endeavor to bring the two countries closer together and reopen the British Embassy in Tehran, and that is why, every now and then, Iranian local newspapers reflect his viewpoints on the rebuilding of ties between Iran and the UK. On his trip to Tehran, we managed to hold an interview with him on Mr. Cameron’s comments at the meeting with Iran’s Rouhani, the possibility of reopening the British Embassy and the challenges in the way of making the relations between the two countries work.

AVA Diplomatic’s Exclusive Interview with Richard Bacon,

the Member of Parliament (MP) for the South Norfolk constituency

Interview by Mohammadreza Nazari

 As the Chair of UK-Iran Parliamentary Friendship Group, you are experiencing your first visit to Iran. I would like to ask which aspects of Tehran have been most attractive to you?

Well, I’ve always wanted to come to Iran. I tried to get a visa in 1993; at least, I looked into it, but they were 540 pounds and it was for 7 days, and this was when I was a freelance journalist. I’ve always wanted to come. But, to answer your question, my impression…I went traveling to eastern Turkey, to Doğubayazıt, which is only 35kms from the Iranian border. And I was fascinated by the idea of coming to Iran. So it is possible I’m not a typical example. But to answer your question, I think it’s a very typical opinion in the UK and probably elsewhere in the west that Iran’s not a normal country, and the best way to correct that false impression is to come here and you discover that Iran is a normal country with friendly people and a very wide range of people, with normal range of people and human activity you would expect to find anywhere, from beautiful cuisine to taxi drivers who complain and everything in between, and this is an impression which I think you must work on. Iran’s a staggeringly beautiful country, even now, I know that only and mostly through to the photographs I have seen. The idea that Iran is a country with green country sides with roses is not an impression that people know about, which is why I think you need public relations. I think the phrase “public relations” is often misunderstood. When people use the phrase “public relations”, the often mean something pejorative, something bad, that is to say that you have something that’s not good and using public relations to make the false impression a better impression. That is the opposite of what I understand about public relations. What I mean by it is making sure that truth gets out and is understood. I didn’t know, for example, until today, that one thousand Iranian soldiers have died on the borders of Afghanistan trying to stop the narcotics trade. I didn’t know that until today. In the UK, we’ve lost 453 troops in Afghanistan; that’s an important fact; everyone knows about it; people talk about it; people remember it; they commemorate it; they honor their souls and cherish their memories.

 Do you think that the British MPs have a genuine opinion about Iran? Do we need to expect a politician to visit somewhere to know it better? Shouldn’t they be better informed given the vast variety of information available around them?

That was just one example I was giving of what I mean by public relations. The job of getting the truth out is actually very difficult, and as the American author, Mark Twain said, “Eyes and distortion are always around the globe before the truth gets its boots on.” And so, working hard at identifying the truths you want to make sure are understood and then pushing those truths out in the right way so that they’re accepted and understood is important and hard work.

 Why don’t the Iranian studies centers in the UK illustrate the real image of Iran? Why does an MP have to come here and visit it for himself to figure out what the truth of Iran is? Who are the British taxpayers paying for?

First of all, there are several answers to that. First most of the think tanks are not funded by the taxpayers. Secondly, it is difficult for me to comment on them without having read them and say whether it is right or wrong. I wasn’t actually talking about the opinions of think tanks, specialists or researchers. That wasn’t really what I was talking about. I was talking about the general opinion in so far as it gets discussed at all of the present and past. I can deliver at least four categories of people who you should try to have come to Iran. The most important category are opinion formers of one kind of another, and of all the kinds of opinion formers, the most obvious are journalists, because they are free to get wherever they wish and to write what they want, and if journalist come here, particularly come with a camera. And secondly, parliamentarians, other members of parliament. Parliamentarians are professional talkers, they love talking, so when they get back home, they talk wherever they get the chance; they talk in the parliament, they talk on TV, they talk on radio, they talk to newspapers, and they also talk to government ministers and ask questions of and put pressures on them. So, first journalists, second parliamentarians, because they’re important opinion formers, third businessmen in commerce, because there are a lot of trades that should be being done between the UK and other European countries and Iran.

 We hope, of course, to see these happen once the sanctions are lifted.

Yes, the sanctions obviously make it more difficult.

 People are always watching politicians to see what they are saying. When President Rouhani met with Mr. Cameron, and after that, Mr. Cameron spoke against Iran,  that most probably disturbs the public both in the UK and Iran. How can you justify Mr. Cameron’s behavior?

Well, that’s a very good question and I don’t know the answer to that. I have not spoken to Mr. Cameron about it and I can only guess. My guess is this: he is naturally a very courteous and polite person. I think he would not have consciously, deliberately sought anything that was insulting. So I think he may casually have let slip from his mouth that “Iran’s part of the problem.” Because I think he has had absorbed this part of the sight geist, the spirit of the time, and to repeat it was kind of a natural thing without thinking. I think if he had had any idea how damaging it would be; if he had had any idea how insulting it would seem; if he had understood that his comment would make Dr. Rouhani’s job more difficult, giving ammunition to his critics, then, he would not have said it.

 In Iran, too, there are negative viewpoints toward British officials. When in 2011 the UK embassy was assaulted, many were on the belief that it is sending glitches to Iran’s interior affairs. What plans do you have to restore the image of the UK in Iran?

I think that the exchange of people in both directions helps. There is a great deal of blaming that goes on. Most of the activities you are talking about are done by governments, not by people. And yet, later, when one speaks about the opinion of Britain or the opinion of Iran, one is talking about the opinion of people. That’s why I think getting more people involved in the relationship between Iran and the UK is extremely important. That’s the reason I’m here. Because I naturally want our government to have a better relationship with the Iranian government and vice versa. I can’t wait for the governments to get it right. I think there is a responsibility on people individually to start doing something.

 So, to restore the ties between Iran and the UK, when will the UK embassy in Tehran reopen?

Well, I can’t speak on behalf of the government. I’m told by the British government that the reasons it gives have to do with negotiations, to do with importing the equipment to equip the embassy and to do with visas and returning citizens. These are the explanations of my government so far as I understand them, not my own explanations. My own view is that there are such important things going on in the world right now, esp. what is going on in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Afghanistan. In such circumstances, there is important work to do, and we should be getting on with that work rather than arguing about an embassy building. There are important questions related to Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon which we will not be able to solve or fix without the help of Iran. And there are many other nations in the world including Russia, Spain, Germany, France and many others who have embassies here now. So my personal opinion is to just get on with it.

 Do people also think it is a good idea to reopen the embassy here in Tehran like the UK Parliament?

Most people in the UK parliament don’t spend a lot of time thinking about reopening the UK embassy in Tehran at all. They spend most of the time worrying about the condition of our health system, our education system, our housing system, our transportation system. In other words, they are like politicians everywhere. But I happen to think this is very, very important. The west helped create an enormous mess in Iraq after the invasion in 2003. I understand it was not only the west. In other words, there plenty of local problems as well. But, we in the west, have more than fair share to make things worse. I wish it hadn’t happened. I voted against the Iraq invasion in March, 2003. I also voted against the attack the government suggested on Syria in 2013. Plainly, there’s an enormous problem now and I think the entire global community needs to come together to help solve this problem. And for those, who have eyes to see, the role of Iran is critical, crucial, extremely important.

 You are the chair of the Parliamentary Friendship Group of Iran and the UK. What have you done thus far to improve the image of Iran in the UK?

I’ve already been the co-chair of the group for one month. And in one month, I have sponsored a debate in the parliament with Jack Straw and also visited Tehran for 4 days for a conference. Give me six months and I shall probably be able to talk to Mr. Cameron about it; give me 12 months and I will move mountains. I expect world peace at about half past 6 by 2020.

 The world doesn’t spin on those who have idealist impressions, but on those who are realists.

Steve Jobs who founded Apple said this, “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are people who do.” And my central core political belief is the importance of personal responsibility for taking action. In my world view, there is not “they” who can do this. It is we who can do it. We have to do it. And so we have to get on with it. And that means talking, meeting, visiting each other, correcting the false impressions people have against each other.

 Our interview has now come to an end. In Iran, there’s a historical regret that the political image of Iran was changed for life by the UK.  They suppose if the UK haven’t had sponsored the 1953 coup, Iran might’ve achieved real democracy by now. What do you suggest to remove this regret from their lives?

The first thing about the 1953 incident and all that most people in the UK are unaware of this. They are completely unaware of what we did. You can go way back to Qajar Dynasty and to the Anglo-Iranian oil company, the Darsi Petroleum Company before that. I understand this, because I started to read about it. I don’t pretend to understand all the detail. They do understand that the historic hurt goes back a very long way. They understand it goes way beyond 1953. And I think the feeling of grievance is justified in many ways. So the first step is to make sure there is a wider understanding of true facts. And if you look much, much more recently, for example, after what happened in 9/11, and the way in which the Iranian government gave logistical and practical support to the west and the Americans vis-a-vis Afghanistan, that was extremely useful, and I think we should’ve said thank you. And there were extended vigils in Tehran and elsewhere in sympathy with the incident. And in return, Iran was called the Axis of Evil. I mean, to me, it is mind-blowing.

 Just as you mentioned earlier, in Mohammad Khatami’s administration, Iran cooperated with the US to uproot Taliban and help Afghanistan form a new government. Even the head of the US committee in charge of forming the new cabinet in Afghanistan owned up that but for Iran’s creativity, Karzai’s government hadn’t come into existence. But shortly after that, George W. Bush called Iran “the Axis of Evil”. Given all these, why did Mr. Cameron treat Iran the same way George W. Bush did?

I think Cameron isn’t like George W. Bush. I haven’t studied Cameron’s rhetoric honestly. But I should say there was a small group of people who got the control of the US government, in particular in control of its foreign and defense policy. I speak of Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush himself and others who caused enormous, incalculable damage and we are suffering from its consequences, and I don’t think Cameron is one of them at all. So we’ve got a very big repair job to do, specifically vis-à-vis the UK and Iran. But there is also we have a responsibility, because we helped create a mess in the Middle East.