Hague: Britain in talks to re-open Iran embassy

The Foreign Secretary said that the two countries had appointed non-resident charge d'affairs to oversee diplomatic exchanges and were negotiating the terms of a deal to restore full scale diplomatic links in future. A second round of negotiations between the officials is to be held next week.

Mr Hague said talks between himself and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif had resulted in both countries deciding to appoint "a non-resident charge d'affaires tasked with implementing the building of relations, including interim steps on the way towards the eventual reopening of both our embassies."

Mr Hague told the House of Commons: "Building up trust and cooperation is going to be necessary before we can say, yes we are opening up the embassy again.

"This includes discussion of numbers of and conditions for locally-engaged staff in the Embassy premises of each country and visits to inspect these premises."

Douglas Alexander, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, welcomed the announcement of negotiations.

The Foreign Secretary also hinted that Britain and the United States would ultimately be willing to look again at sanctions against Iran if its leadership was prepared to make real concessions on its nuclear programme. "We must not forget for a moment that as things stand today, Iran remains in defiance of six Security Council resolutions and multiple resolutions of the International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors and is installing more centrifuges in its nuclear facilities.

"In the absence of change to these policies, we will continue to maintain strong sanctions. A substantial change in British or western policies requires a substantive change in that programme."

He told MPs in a statement that both Iran and the UK would appoint charges d'affaires as part of efforts to broker better bilateral relations.

Britain shut its embassy in Iran's capital Tehran in November 2011 after it was attacked by protesters. But since newly-elected President Hassan Rouhani took power, relations between Iran and the UK have improved.

David Cameron welcomed the election of President Hassan Rouhani earlier this year, but said ties remain strained because of the ransacking of the British Embassy in Tehran in 2011, an incident that led to one of the worst crises between the two countries since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.