radiofarda – In a video posted on Instagram on Thursday, Britain’s ambassador to Iran who left the country following his brief arrest by Iranian security forces three weeks ago said he is back in Tehran after planned meetings with the foreign minister and other high-ranking officials of his country.
The British envoy, Robert Macaire, was arrested for “instigating and organizing suspicious activities” in a protest rally in front of Tehran’s Amir Kabir University on January 12. Macaire and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) maintained that his return to Britain after the arrest had been pre-planned and had nothing to do with the incident.
In his Instagram post Rob Macaire who spoke in fluent Persian said he had held meetings with his superiors to discuss Iran-related topics including the nuclear agreement with Iran and INSTEX after leaving the European Union. The British envoy said Britain was still committed to both.
Macaire said Britain wants to employ the Iran nuclear agreement (JCPOA) dispute resolution mechanism with Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China to find a way forward in the current deadlock and “to address the concerns of the International community about Iran’s nuclear program” as well as “Iran’s concerns about economic rewards” it expects to benefit from by staying in the agreement.
In protest to U.S. sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy Iran in January announced that it would abandon all restrictions imposed by the agreement on uranium enrichment but would continue to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency which regularly monitors its nuclear activities.
Europeans threatened in January to trigger international sanctions against Iran but have since announced they will wait to see if a solution can be found.
Several high-ranking officials including Iran’s Prosecutor-General urged the government to expel the British envoy as persona non grata following his arrest. .