On Tuesday the British embassy in Tehran was stormed by hundreds of protestors after Britain informed them of their decision to impose further sanctions on Iran due to their nuclear programme. And in retaliation to this the foreign secretary William Hague has decided to close the Iranian embassy in Britain, his reasoning being “If any country makes it impossible for us to operate on their soil they cannot expect to have a functioning embassy here”. In the modern world I find it incredibly discouraging to think that in a developed country such as Britain our government’s only answer to adversity is to, as I used to say to my little brother when we were children ‘hit them back harder’. Actions like these do not constitute a government which is in support of negotiation and reconciliation. Actions like these create a country whose stubbornness against making the first steps towards peace causes far more trouble and problems than is necessary. Ghandi once famously said “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” and in this case I believe it is especially relevant.
I was stunned by this succession of pointless and childish acts of petty negligence, and firmly believe that a country is not strong based on its nuclear programme or number of people it has put in space, but on the courage and initiative to make the first steps towards peace and to try and improve relations with other countries instead of worsening them further. Relations between the UK and the Islamic Republic of Iran have been complicated and difficult since the Iranian revolution in 1979. So isn’t it time to stop playing infantile games achieving nothing except more distrust and start making changes which will make our foreign policy a far less turbulent and depressing sector of our government.
