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Britain Pays For Bush's Comments In Crisis With Iran
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| Blair’s support of Bush puts strains on Iran-UK relations |
LONDON, Feb. 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Britain's spurned ambassador to Tehran has borne the brunt of Iranian anger over U.S. President George W. Bush's "axis of evil" comments, but experts said Friday they expected Iran-Europe relations to recover quickly from the row, news agencies reported Friday, February, 8.
Relations between Britain and Iran deteriorated sharply Thursday night after Tehran formally rejected David Reddaway as the next British ambassador.
A British Foreign Office spokesman confirmed that Iran had "refused to accept Reddaway" and said: "We have no plans at present to put forward anyone else."
Relations between the two countries, which had seen a steady improvement, are now being in effect downgraded, reported British daily newspaper, The Independent.
Foreign Office sources said the decision to reject Reddaway would inevitably have an effect on dealings between Tehran and London. The Iranian ambassador would now receive "no more access than that of Britain's chargé d'affaires in Tehran".
The Iranian authorities have been upset for some weeks since Reddaway's selection, particularly because of his wife's Iranian nationality, explained Ali Ansari, a researcher for the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
"Until last week we thought he was going to be accepted, everything was going the right way, because the moderates were gaining the upper hand, but after George Bush's speech the moderates have been completely sidelined," he said, AFP reported.
Although the moderation of Iran's political climate since the September 11 attacks has been welcomed in most Western capitals, Bush's declarations heightened anti-American feelings in Tehran and London's designated ambassador was the unwitting victim, AFP said.
"Britain and the U.S., in the mind of Iranians, are in many ways connected, and the British have been caught in the anti-US rhetoric," said Katerina Dalacoura, an expert from the London School of Economics.
Reddaway, who is an expert on Iran and a former chargé d'affaires in Tehran, appeared to be an early victim of the hard-line attitude taken by Bush in his State of the Union address last week, when he included Iran, with Iraq and North Korea, in an "axis of evil".
Although the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, insisted in Washington last week that Britain would continue its dialogue with reformists in Iran, Reddaway's appointment appears to have been too much of a risk for Iranian moderates in the current political climate.
The rejection ends a steady rapprochement between London and Tehran which began two months ago, when Straw became the first British foreign secretary to visit Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Then, he spoke of inaugurating a "new era" in relations. But he returned to Tehran unexpectedly a month later, when he is believed to have raised the question of Reddaway's appointment.
The irony is that Britain has made more effort than any other European country in recent months to improve its relations with Iran.
Last March, London named the armed Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin, among 21 "terrorist" organizations outlawed on British soil, in what seemed like a gesture of goodwill to Tehran.
Iran's toughening of stance is therefore "quite a blow" for British diplomacy, said Dalacoura, but it will not last long. "I don't think that that would be a cause for full disruption of relations, such things have happened before and they have been patched up. When stronger interests are on the line, there is a way to patch up such issues," she added.
"In the long term, if anything, Iran has appreciated that its interests lie with Europe, they know that fully, they understand that," said Ansari.
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