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12/02/2011

Embassies closed, sanctions tightened, and diplomatic relations now sour, relations between Britain and Iran have entered new, uncharted, territory.

So like the British embassy in Tehran, here too, diplomats are on their way home. And at a time when the UK government is locked in battle with the country's unions and struggling to keep the economy from falling back into recession, it appears to have made its push for further sanctions on Iran a priority, diverting the media's gaze away from domestic problems.

William Hague blamed Iranian officials for the student protest which overran the British embassy in Tehran. Iran has described the UK's decision to close its London embassy as hasty, and says it will take necessary measures in response.

The UK and Iran have a turbulent history. Many Iranians view the UK as an interfering outsider, responsible for the overthrow of their first democratically elected Prime Minister in 1953, and installing the Shah.

British arms supplies to Saddam Hussain at a time when he used chemical weapons against Iran, added to that bitter legacy.

Iran's embassy in London has also been attacked several times in the past three decades. This video filmed last year shows one of those attacks, nobody was arrested for the incident. And many further attacks against Iranian embassies have taken place across Europe and the US in recent years, in some cases with staff injured. But they've received little media attention.

Most recently, the UK has been leading the charge for further sanctions against Iran, in co-ordination with its EU counterparts. But critics say those sanctions will be counterproductive.

And although the EU has stepped back from an embargo on Iranian oil, Britain says it will pursue further unilateral sanctions.

That comes at a time when PressTV too has found itself under attack from the British establishment. According to the Wikileaks Cables, the UK foreign office has for some time been looking at ways to restrict PressTV's license to operate in London.

And in the last few days the UK communications regulator OFCOM has decided to fine the channel 100 thousand pounds for what it describes as 'breaches of the broadcasting code'. If further sanctions are to be implemented against Iran, they could also take PressTV off the air in the UK.

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