British Foreign Policy Towards The I.R. Iran With Special Reference To The Two Main British Governing Parties: 2000-2015
Since its coming to Office, in the summer of 2010, the Conservative government (in coalition with the Liberal-Democrats, as the Conservative party did not gain the overall majority votes in the British general election of 2010, and thus had to go into coalition with the Liberal-Democrats), engaged with the Iranian issue in exactly the same fashion as its predecessors, i.e.: the Labour administration of Tony Blair, and Gordon Brown, which was pointed out earlier on, in a different context, in this article. “Although Great Britain has continued to advocate a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, [nuclear issue] it has voted in favor UNSC sanctions against Iran as well as additional sanctions enacted by the European Union,”28 said David Cameron, the Conservative prime minister, just after formation of his cabinet. Nick Clegg, the Conservative prime minister’s deputy (before the election leader of Liberal-Democrats now in the coalition government, with the Conservatives), on the issue of Israel, just after his appointment to the post of deputy prime minister, said, “Mr. Brown (referring to Gordon Brown, the Labour prime minister, now out of Office) was absolutely right to condemn the Iranian threat to Israel.”29 This was another example of continuation of policies under the new Conservative administration. On Iraq, and Afghanistan, the Anglo-American Special Relationship, just as under the Labour governments of Tony Blair, and Gordon Brown, was taking its own course, which has been demonstrated in this article, and needless to say that, they are not, really, Iranian issues, as such, to expand on them, in this article. The British interference issue in Iranian internal affairs, was still an ongoing agenda, under the Conservatives, to the extent that, not only the UK ambassador to Tehran, received the dressing down by the Iranian foreign ministry, but, there were also ever growing talks of breaking diplomatic relations with the UK, in the Iranian centres of power.
Therefore, as has been witnessed, it could be said that, foreign policy for almost all countries in the world, is a protection of national interests’ issues, and not a personal, and/or partisan issue, or for that matter, a domestic subject, which can be reshaped, quickly. In the case of the United Kingdom, there has almost always been a consensus over foreign policy among the main political parties at least ever since the Second World War, until today, the second decade of the twenty first century, except one exception. That was during the Vietnam war, when the Labour government of Harold Wilson in the 1960s did not go along with the Americans, like many contemporary examples relating to Anglo-American co-operations, that have been offered in this article, and refrained from the ‘high politics’ of the Anglo-American Special Relationship. It was clearly illustrated, however, in the article, that the eventual British behaviour towards the Islamic Republic of Iran, stems from the Anglo-American Special Relationship, regardless of what party is in power in Britain.
As direct talks began between the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the West (the United States) in 2013, considerable warming up in the Anglo-Iranian relations also became evident. Though there was no break up of diplomatic relation this time, but it was at its lowest point. However, the speedy patch up of the diplomatic relation between Iran, and the UK, has led to a nearly full diplomatic contact, which could be conducive to a changing Middle East.
