Description
The UK and Iran have had a long, but often challenging, diplomatic relationship. In recent years, relations have been focused on security related issues, especially nuclear proliferation, the security of the Gulf and the arrest of British-Iranian dual national citizens. However, with the release of two British dual nationals this year, changing regional diplomatic dynamics and nuclear negotiations drawing to a close in Vienna, the time has come for the UK to re-evaluate its approach to Iran. This paper begins this process by challenging whether Iran is still important to the UK. It does so by providing discourse analysis of speeches and statements given by UK politicians and government representatives on Iran from the last twenty years. This analysis is used to determine the key areas of discussion for relations and how these have changed or developed over time. Primary data is collected from gov.uk, the United Nations and Hansard before being coded and run through NVivo. The findings determine what areas of relations have been important in the past and plots the trajectory of each of these issues in order to determine whether will remain important to the UK in the future.
