Britain sparked controversy yesterday by sending its second most senior diplomat in Tehran to the ceremony at which Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, officially endorsed President Ahmadinejad’s hotly disputed re-election. Iran’s opposition leaders, who say the election was rigged, boycotted the event.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) sent Patrick Davies, the British Embassy’s deputy head of mission, even though the regime has repeatedly accused Britain of fomenting the turmoil that has engulfed Iran since the ballot, arrested Iranians working for the Embassy and expelled the BBC’s Tehran correspondent.
The FCO said that it sent Mr Davies to the ceremony instead of Simon Gass, the Ambassador, to show there was no “business as usual” with a regime accused of rigging the election, brutally suppressing the opposition and staging show trials of dissidents.
