Iran slams Russia, UK envoys over ‘picture’

TEHRAN: Iran has sharply criticised the Russian and British ambassadors to Tehran after a picture was posted online of the pair recreating a WWII image when Iran was under Soviet-Anglo occupation.

The picture shows Britain’s new ambassador Simon Shercliff meeting his Russian counterpart Levan Dzhagaryan on steps leading to the current Russian embassy. The photo, tweeted on Wednesday by the Russian embassy, shows the pair seated in a setting reminiscent of the 1943 Tehran conference meeting between then British prime minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

Churchill and Stalin, allies against Nazi Germany during World War II, were holding strategy talks with US president Franklin Roosevelt two years after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. The picture drew sharp criticism from politicians across the board in the Islamic republic, with outgoing Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif among them.