The Marquess of Lothian – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Marquess of Lothian on 2016-06-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the current state of bilateral relations with Iran a year after the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in Vienna on 14 July 2015.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was agreed in July 2015 which, along with the subsequent lifting of international sanctions, represents a new era in Iran’s relationship with the wider world. Since my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) reopened our Embassy in August 2015, significant progress has been made in developing the bilateral relationship between the UK and Iran. We welcomed Foreign Minister Zarif to London on 4 February 2016, in what was the first bilateral visit of an Iranian Foreign Minister since 2003. We hope to be able to upgrade to the level of Ambassadors in the near future.