Iran’s UK envoy defines Johnson’s visit goals

TEHRAN (defapress) – Iranian Ambassador to Britain, Hamid Baeidinejad, discussed with media the objectives of UK Foreign Secretary’s visit to Tehran, including JCPOA, economic ties, and regional issues.

News ID: 67345

Date: 09 December 2017 - 10:20

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Iranian Ambassador to UK stressed that one of the key objectives of British Foreign Secretary’s Saturday visit to Tehran is the topic of Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA), and finding a more effective way for its implementation.

"The British government has held regular contacts at the highest level with European and American authorities to ensure the credibility and successful implementation of the JCPOA,” Hamid Baeidinejad said. "But we have some complaints about the implementation of the nuclear deal inside the UK. We expected that the implementation of the JCPOA would entail the removal of economic and banking obstacles between the two sides as soon as possible.”

The Iranian envoy went on to add, "although the UK government has voiced its interest in facilitating banking transactions, all British banks are owned by the private sector and thus, work according to their own interests.”

"We expect that, with the initiative of the British government, banks will make efforts to overcome the existing barriers and restrictions facing the two sides' resolve for expanding economic cooperation," he stressed.

Baeidinejad then discussed the regional topics that Johnson would raise during his meetings with senior Iranian officials, saying "the UK’s regional policy is no longer influenced by Saudi Arabia, and we intend to expand cooperation with UK in line with promoting peace and stability across the region and the world.”

"For example in the case of Yemen, we saw that Britain finally decided to play a more active part in ensuring the delivery of humanitarian aid to the war-stricken people,” he said. "We expect that the arms sales to Saudi Arabia be stopped, and that the UK utilize all its capacities to pressure the Saudi regime into halting aggression against the innocent people of Yemen.”

Baeidinejad noted the change in UK’s policy toward Syria in the past few months, saying "the UK has accepted the fact that the removal of Bashar Assad not only will help the Syrian situation, but it will lead to escalation of terror and violence in the country.”

The Iranian envoy further hailed UK’s stance toward the resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, and the country’s objection to Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem al-Quds as Israeli regime’s capital.

Baeidinejad then discussed the positive prospect of economic relations between Tehran and London, adding "the Royal Dutch Shell [a British–Dutch multinational oil and gas company] has announced plans for long-term economic cooperation with Iran and has recently opened its office Iran.”

He also noted the signing of a contract on construction of the fifth solar power plant in the world by a British company in Iran, saying the contract is worth between 600 to 800 million pounds.