麻豆约拍

Britain's elegant Victorian ambassador's residence in Tehran has seen many false dawns in relations between the UK and Iran.

This morning, the Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond declared the embassy open again, four years after it was attacked by angry crowds and the staff pulled out.

Now, after helping to negotiate the deal aimed at limiting Iran's nuclear ambitions, Mr Hammond is there, accompanied by a trade delegation hoping to do business in Iran.

The embassy has been opened and closed more than once since the biggest upheaval in relations, the Islamic Revolution which broke out early in 1979, I've been to meet our man in Tehran then, Sir John Graham.

Sir John took up his post after the Shah had vacated the peacock throne, just as Iranians awaited the return from exile of Ayatollah Khomeni.