My former Deputy from the Embassy in Warsaw, the redoubtable Patrick Davies, opted for a sleepy posting in Tehran after all the turmoil of Polish politics.

Imagine his surprise to find himself splashed in the Times – for attending a ceremony at which Iran’s spiritual leader officially endorsed President Ahmadinejad.

Question for a country’s Foreign Service 

On the one hand:

  • it looks as if thuggery has worked in propelling back into top office someone who did not deserve to be there after a massively flawed so-called election
  • the regime goes out of its way to blame you for everything, and is largely implacable
  • many of the country’s own senior people are boycotting the ceremony at which this odious man gets ‘approved’ by the country’s top cleric
  • and meanwhile an absurd show trial has been launched against those who protested against the phoney elections
  • basically, the whole place is a belligerent human rights disaster, now with added nukes on the way

On the other hand:

  • it looks as if the hard-line regime has prevailed against the more moderate opposition, and you are likely to have to deal with this man for some more years to come
  • key allies such as the USA have shown no stomach for a fight
  • life goes on
  • Realism invariably trumps Idealism 

So, at what level should you be represented at the ceremony? Or should your diplomats too boycott it?

Hmm.

No good options:

  • infuriating in this case that the EU could not take a single dismissive view, eg by sending the Swedish Deputy Head of Mission to represent the current EU Presidency and everyone else sending no-one. Instead it is representing the EU at Ambassadorial level. 
  • a boycott by you looks puny if few other serious countries take part – and will give the regime an easy stick to attack you in public
  • if national representation is inevitable, sending the highest level person (Ambassador) looks as if you have given up on criticising the regime and will be presented by gloating local state media as a humiliating climb-down by you
  • so it has to be something in the middle. Towards the top or the bottom of the Embassy food chain?
  • On the whole, better towards the top. If we are stuck with this ghastly situation for years to come, best to grit teeth and plough on

Result? Looks like a fun day out for you, Patrick! 

How to spin this grisly and ultimately meaningless gesture, when it will be criticised for giving the regime a respectability it does not deserve?

Quick, gizza sound-bite. Yup, that’ll do: Hard-headed Diplomacy:

The FCO said that it sent Mr Davies to the ceremony instead of Simon Gass, the Ambassador, to show there was no “business as usual” with a regime accused of rigging the election, brutally suppressing the opposition and staging show trials of dissidents.

The FCO also argued that it had to keep talking to the regime about its nuclear programme, human rights and other pressing issues, and that “to do this, communication channels have to be open”.

Hard-headed? Bone-headed? Air-headed?

I report, you decide.

Diplomacy. Never a dull moment.