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British ambassador returns to Iran after brief arrest last month

07 February 2020 13:02 (UTC +04:00)

Britain’s ambassador to Iran is back in Tehran, he said late on Thursday, some three weeks after he returned to London following his brief arrest by Iranian security forces, APA reports citing Reuters.

Rob Macaire was called an “undesirable element” by Iran’s judiciary after officials accused him of attending an illegal protest last month and a hardline cleric said he should be expelled, state media reported.

The ambassador said he had attended a vigil for victims of the crash of a Ukrainian airliner, amid public anger over Iran’s belated admission that it accidentally shot down the plane.

Britain called Macaire’s detention a violation of diplomatic conventions, and he flew back to London in mid-January.

In an Instagram video posted on Thursday, Macaire said in Farsi that that visit was “an important trip that was planned some time ago” and had included a meeting with foreign minister Dominic Raab.

Macaire, who has been in the post since 2018, added that he had recently returned to Tehran.