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Iran Appoints Zarif’s Deputy as Ambassador to UK

The new Iranian ambassador to London, Mohsen Baharvand, whispers in the ear of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on the sidelines of a meeting (PANA)
The new Iranian ambassador to London, Mohsen Baharvand, whispers in the ear of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on the sidelines of a meeting (PANA)
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Iran Appoints Zarif’s Deputy as Ambassador to UK

The new Iranian ambassador to London, Mohsen Baharvand, whispers in the ear of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on the sidelines of a meeting (PANA)
The new Iranian ambassador to London, Mohsen Baharvand, whispers in the ear of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on the sidelines of a meeting (PANA)

Iran has appointed its deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs and former envoy to Argentine, Mohsen Baharvand, as its new ambassador to the UK, according to Iranian media reports on Sunday.

Baharvand, aged 55, will begin his activity as Iran’s new ambassador in the UK on Tuesday after submitting a copy of his credentials to Queen Elizabeth II, state-run ISNA news agency cited Iran’s chargé d’affaires to the UK Mehdi Hosseini Matin as saying.

The newly appointed ambassador is one of the inner circle members of Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who is expected to retire from diplomacy after stepping down from his post next August.

Their relationship dates back to the days Zarif was assigned to the Iranian mission at the United Nations headquarters in New York, where Baharvand joined as an intern.

Baharvand will replace Hamid Baeidinejad, a former member of Iran’s nuclear deal negotiations team.

The new Iranian ambassador will be assuming his position after relations between London and Tehran having gone through many stages, especially as Iran anticipates the future of the nuclear talks in Vienna.

The UK had supported the revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, after which London and Tehran resumed diplomatic relations.

The resumption of ties came four years after the British embassy in Tehran was stormed and looted by dozens of protesters.

The angry protesters broke into the British embassy after a decision by the Iranian parliament to cut diplomatic ties with London in response to the UK’s support for an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on the Iranian nuclear program.

More so, Baharvand will be taking up his new post in London at a time when the UK is trying to free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an Iranian-British dual national imprisoned in Iran.

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At Least 13 People Killed in Pakistani Strikes on Suspected Militant Hideouts in Afghanistan

In this file photo, taken on August 3, 2021, Pakistan Army troops patrol along the fence on the Pakistan Afghanistan border at Big Ben hilltop post in Khyber district. (AP/File)
In this file photo, taken on August 3, 2021, Pakistan Army troops patrol along the fence on the Pakistan Afghanistan border at Big Ben hilltop post in Khyber district. (AP/File)
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At Least 13 People Killed in Pakistani Strikes on Suspected Militant Hideouts in Afghanistan

In this file photo, taken on August 3, 2021, Pakistan Army troops patrol along the fence on the Pakistan Afghanistan border at Big Ben hilltop post in Khyber district. (AP/File)
In this file photo, taken on August 3, 2021, Pakistan Army troops patrol along the fence on the Pakistan Afghanistan border at Big Ben hilltop post in Khyber district. (AP/File)

Local Afghans and the Pakistani Taliban said Wednesday that civilians, including women and children, were killed after Pakistan launched rare airstrikes inside neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistani security officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with regulations, told The Associated Press that Tuesday's operation was to dismantle a training facility and kill insurgents in the province of Paktika, bordering Afghanistan.
Residents in the area told an AP reporter over the phone that at least 13 people were left dead, adding that the death toll could be higher. They also said the wounded were transported to a local hospital.
Meanwhile, in a statement, Mohammad Khurasani, the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, claimed that 50 people, including 27 women and children, have died in the strikes.
Pakistan has not commented on the strikes. However, on Wednesday, the Pakistani military said security forces killed 13 insurgents in an overnight intelligence-based operation in South Waziristan, a district located along eastern Afghanistan's Paktika province.
The strikes are likely to further spike tensions between the two countries. Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban government denounced the attack, saying on Tuesday that most of the victims were refugees from the Waziristan region and promising retaliation.
The TTP is a separate group but also a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
In March, Pakistan said intelligence-based strikes took place in the border regions inside Afghanistan.
Pakistan has seen innumerable militant attacks in the past two decades but there has been an uptick in recent months. The latest was this weekend when at least 16 Pakistani soldiers were killed when TTP attacked a checkpoint in the country’s northwest.
Pakistani officials have accused the Taliban of not doing enough to combat militant activity across the shared border, a charge the Afghan Taliban government denies, saying it does not allow anyone to carry out attacks against any country.