The Embassy of Iran in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

is the

diplomatic mission A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually den ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It is located in a

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overlooking Hyde Park in

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, London, next to the embassy of Ethiopia. Iran also maintains a Consular Section at 50 Kensington Court,

. The embassy building, along with the Ethiopian Embassy and the

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, is one of a group of Grade II listed stucco buildings. The embassy was the location of the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege in which members of the Iranian-Arab nationalist group the

Democratic Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Arabistan The Democratic Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Arabistan (DRFLA) ( ar, الجبهة الديمقراطية الثورية لتحرير عربستان, ''al-Jabha al-dīmuqrāṭiyya al-thawriyya li-taḥrīr ‘Arabistān'') was an Arab ...

seized the building for several days before being overrun by the SAS. The embassy was severely damaged during the siege and did not re-open until 1993. Following the 2011 attack on the British Embassy in Iran, the British government expelled all Iranian embassy staff and closed the embassy in protest, alleging government support for the attack. Between 2011 and 2014, Iranian interests in the UK were represented by the Omani Embassy. Anglo-Iranian relations have improved since the election of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Hassan Rouhani and the countries made plans to re-open the embassy. On February 20, 2014 the Embassy was restored and the two countries agreed to restart

diplomatic relations Diplomacy comprises spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. 1 ...

. On March 9, 2018 four people from Khoddam Al-Mahdi were arrested after climbing onto the first-floor balcony of the Embassy and taking down the Iranian flag in an apparent protest against the government in Tehran due to the arrest of the Islamic scholar Hussein al-Shirazi in Qom three days earlier. On September 25, 2022, there were angry protests outside the Embassy, mostly by the Iranian diaspora in the United Kingdom, following the

death of Mahsa Amini On 16 September 2022, the 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, also known as Jina Amini,; ku, ژینا ئەمینی, Jîna Emînî died in a hospital in Tehran, Iran, under suspicious circumstances. The Guidance Patrol, the religious mor ...

in police custody on September 16. Demonstrators waved the pre-1979 Iranian flag and chanted "Death to the Islamic Republic". Five Metropolitan Police officers were injured and twelve arrests were made.

Gallery

File:16 Princes Gate.jpg, The embassy in 2008 File:Zz embassy.jpg, The embassy as it appeared after the hostage crisis, 1980

References

{{Iran–United Kingdom relations

Diplomatic missions of Iran Iran–United Kingdom relations Grade II listed buildings in the City of Westminster South Kensington