Britain has accepted incoming Iranian ambassador – report

Iran Focus: London, May 15 – Britain has “unofficially” accepted Iran’s proposed candidate for ambassador, a Persian-language website belonging to the State Expediency Council reported on Monday. Iran Focus

London, May 15 – Britain has “unofficially” accepted Iran’s proposed candidate for ambassador, a Persian-language website belonging to the State Expediency Council reported on Monday.

Rasoul Movahedian-Attar is expected to take up the post which has been vacant since late 2005 when hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recalled 40 of the country’s ambassadors and envoys as part of a purge of the Islamic Republic’s diplomats who did not belong to the ultra-Islamist faction.

In April, Iran Focus reported that a number of officials appointed by Ahmadinejad’s government for the posts of Iran’s ambassadors to European countries had been rejected by the host countries.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has since been struggling to find replacement candidates.

Movahedian-Attar was previously Tehran’s top envoy to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Portugal.

London has not formally commented on the appointment.