UK ambassador angers Iran with ‘insulting’ embassy photo gaffe

Russian counterpart tweets photo of pair in chairs sat in by Churchill and Stalin in 1943 when Iran was occupied

The new British ambassador to Iran has landed himself in hot water by posing alongside his Russian counterpart in chairs sat in by Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin in the British embassy at the height of Iran's subjugation during the second world war.

The Tehran conference held at the embassy in the capital in 1943 is seen as a low point in Iranian independence, and the photograph tweeted by the Russian ambassador has been regarded by some Iranians as a serious misjudgment.