Adel Darwish reports on the latest diplomatic brouhaha between London and Tehran.

Poor President Mohammed Khatami, whenever he steps forward on the road of improving relations with the rest of the world, he discovers that the elastic attached to his cloak and held by the hardline Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is painfully short as, once again, his back is slammed against the wall.
By the end of last year, Iran’s image began to receive the first light touches of a makeover in the western — especially American — press, after President Khatami took the wise step of condemning the 11 September terror attacks and opening his borders for refugees from Afghanistan, as well as quietly doing his bit in helping defeat the universally loathed Taliban regime. A few days later, the Islamic hardliners generated a diplomatic stand-off with Britain, that can only harm Iran and wipe out the modest, but significant, gains President Khatami has worked hard to achieve in the past three years.
Even though the British Foreign Office — which, in contrast to the loud and brash US State Department, prefers to take the line of unobtrusive but, hopefully, effective diplomacy — had been trying for three months to wrap the diplomatic row with Tehran in a cloak of secrecy, the hardliners chose to blow it up in the first week of January.
Many Iranian analysts, including former and serving diplomats, see him as the best man for the job
An article published on 7 January in the Farsi-language daily newspaper Jomhuri Islami, the mouth-piece of the anti-Khatami hardline Islamic clergy, followed by several editorials in Kyhan and other anti-Khatami publications, threatened to undo Britain’s three years efforts to improve relations with Iran.
The article said the Iranian government had refused to accept the appointment of David Reddaway, an expert on the region who served in Tehran as charge d’affaires Iran for three years during the early 1990s. The hardliners gave vent to their objections in the Iranian press they control, claiming the British diplomat is of Jewish origin and — without offering any supporting evidence — alleging he is also an MI6 agent.
As the Foreign Office has been at pains to play down the affair, a spokesman, as expected, declined to comment on Mr Reddaway’s religious background, pointing out that such appointments “are based on merit and not religion”. Another British official said there was no basis for the MI6 claim.
As soon as the British press ran the story, the Foreign Office, while publicly refusing to make any meaningful comment, arranged a flood of leaks indicating they would not give way to Iranian pressure. Although not commenting publicly, Foreign Office sources confirmed Mr Reddaway, a Farsi speaker and specialist on Iran, who won the admiration of President Khatami and Iranian foreign Secretary Kamal Kharazi, was proposed last autumn as Britain’s envoy to Tehran, to fill the empty post vacated by Nicholas Browne. Browne returned to London in early December before retiring from the diplomatic service.
According to London based Iranian affairs specialist, Dr Ali Nouri-Zadeh, both Mr Kaharzi and President Khatami were delighted with Mr Reddaway’s appointment when they discussed the matter with ambassador Browne in October.
A high ranking Foreign Office official told the Middle East that Mr Reddaway “is still the one and only choice for the job,”. Rumours he might be considered unsuitable for the post because he is married to an Iranian were dismissed.
Reddaway returned to Iran as a charge d’affairs
Forty-eight year old Reddaway is a highflyer career diplomat who has spent some 25 years in the diplomatic service in Iran, Argentina, India and Europe.
Many Iranian analysts, including former and serving diplomats, see him as the best man for the job having held two diplomatic posts in Iran. He also speaks, reads and writes perfect Farsi.
During the late Shah’s rule, he was an official in the commercial section of the British embassy, later becoming a first political secretary, shortly before the Rise to power of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Events at the time led to the severing of diplomatic relations between the two nations. Reddaway then returned to Iran as a charge d’affairs in the British interest section of the Swedish Embassy between 1990 and 1993..

Read the full story in the February 2002 edition of The Middle East Magazine

Copyright © IC Publications Limited 2001. All rights reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means or used for any business purpose without the written consent of the publisher. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained herein is as accurate as possible, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for any consequences arising from its use.

Back to the top
Contents