In the suburb of Qulhak in northern Tehran there is a beautiful garden covering almost two big blocks full of poplar trees. It is the garden of the British Embassy in Tehran. The site came under British ownership after WW2 and ever since it has been a place for recreation for the British diplomats serving in Iran as well as for Iranianists visiting the country. In 1977 the British Institute of Persian Studies was established in the Qulhak compound. Along with the HQ of the British Embassy in the Ferdowsi Street at the city centre the Qulhak garden are the two British diplomatic compounds in Tehran. Expectedly enough in times of deterioration, and they are many after 1979, of bilateral relations, the Qulhak garden has become a hotspot for Iranian demonstrations. Whenever the HQ British Embassy compound becomes a target of demonstrators, the Qulhak garden follows suit. The same happened in the assault on the British Embassy yesterday.

The Iranian government and establishment have never acknowledged full British ownership over the British garden, claiming that the British Embassy does not have complete legal documents of ownership. The British disagree claiming the opposite. What is interesting in this process is that the Iranian establishment, through the Parliament, decided to highlight this issue after 2005. Ever since the prospect of having Iran repossessing the garden appears more and more likely, following the deteriorating status of Iranian-British relations. In the same framework it is noteworthy that the British Institute of Persian Studies has been underactive in recent years.

The storming of the UK Embassy in Tehran yesterday by Iranian students was combined with a parallel assault on the Qulhak garden compound. These assaults are of unprecedented nature and extent for the relations between the two countries and result from the British policy to sanction Iran economically by cutting every economic tie with Tehran. The Iranian Parliament voted three days ago for downgrading bilateral diplomatic ties and then the assaults occurred.

The style of the Iranian attack on both compounds resembles that of the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979. In the last few years various articles in Iranian newspapers, such as Keyhan, had repeatedly called for taking strict measures, even cutting diplomatic ties with Britain. Anti-Britain sentiment in Iran has been running high since the late 19^th century due to various British economic colonial-style interventions in Iran, such as the Tobacco Monopoly, the exploration of oil reserves, the elevation of the Pahlevi dynasty in Iran (1926), the Mossadeq crisis (1953) and others.

These attacks did not catch Britons by surprise. They were aware of the dangerous situation for their diplomatic staff and they are on guard. The Foreign Office protested to the Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tubkhane and the latter has expressed regret over the incidents. Today London announced the withdrawal of the British diplomats from Iran and warned of retaliatory measures against Iran. The Iranian foreign ministry has not commented on these developments yet.

If London is determined to continue supporting vividly the US policy for the economic and political isolation of Iran, it is expected that bilateral dies will be damaged further, leading even to their disruption for a period of time. The recent British move to cut economic ties with the banking system and the petrochemical industry of Iran is indeed an aggressive act against Iran. In the past hardliners in Tehran have repeatedly called for the end of diplomatic relations with London. Now they have a good reason for enhancing their attitude in this regard.

The ongoing developments are dramatic and they are interconnected with the Iranian nuclear issue, the Syrian crisis and eventually the Palestinian case. The assaults on the British diplomatic mission in Iran have been a signal to London by Tehran that it can reciprocate and it is ready to cut diplomatic ties with London in the foreseeable future, if a hostile British policy persists. In this case the British Garden in Qulhak, could have the fate of the US Embassy compound in Tehran.