Revealed: Prince Charles to visit Iran

Britain’s Prince Charles plans to visit Iran for the first official royal trip in more than 40 years, The Sunday Times reports. British government and royal officials are in talks with Iranian authorities about arranging a tour around the fall, the paper quoted a royal source as saying. “It is hoped that Prince Charles’ trip will help to boost trade and commercial links between the two countries, as well as marking a significant change in Anglo-Iranian relations,” the report said.

Britain is viewed with much cynicism because of its colonial past in Iran where the sobriquet “old fox” is widely used as a reference to the UK. In a litany of intrigues played on Iran, including a role in 1953 coup against the country’s first democratically-elected government, Britain was seen as the real power behind the “peacock throne” of a succession of pliant shahs. Philip Hammond became the first British foreign secretary to visit Iran for more than a decade in August last year and reopen the country’s embassy in Tehran.