Britain’s new Iran ambassador comes with experience of Hezbollah’s rise

Hugo Shorter replaces Simon Shercliff in Tehran ahead of an anticipated Israeli retaliatory strike

Hugo Shorter, who has worked in Lebanon and Syria, is the UK's new ambassador to Iran. Photo: UK Government

A British diplomat who witnessed the growth of the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah in Lebanon during the Syrian civil war has been appointed as the UK's Ambassador to Iran.

Hugo Shorter, who served as ambassador to Lebanon from 2015 to 2018, was named on Thursday by the UK government, as Iran and Israel draw closer to war.

Mr Shorter was in Lebanon when Hezbollah’s forces were fighting in Syria in support of President Bashar Al Assad. He saw first hand the group’s growth that was aided by Iran, which also backed Assad.

Hezbollah’s tactics in Syria included a hunger siege on the town of Madaya using checkpoints, snipers and landmines to hem in the population. They also engaged in a turf war with Al Qaeda in the Syrian Golan Heights – and their potential presence there was viewed as a threat to Israeli security. The UK's emphasis then was to assess the risk that Hezbollah’s expansion and growing military capabilities posed to Israel, according to diplomatic sources working there at the time.

Mr Shorter then served as charge d’affaires to the UK mission to Afghanistan in Doha, Qatar.

His new appointment comes as an Israeli retaliatory strike on Iran is expected. Iran launched more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday, in response to the Israeli killing of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah last week.

It is the second skirmish this year that threatens to escalate into all-out war. Israel’s aerial and ground offensive in Lebanon has significantly weakened Hezbollah.

The UK has sought to maintain diplomatic channels with Iran since reopening an embassy in Tehran in 2014. This is despite Iran’s enmity towards Israel, its detention of British nationals and recent cyber attacks on the UK.

The UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer made a direct call to Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian in August to warn him against attacking Israel, and urging de-escalation. This was the first call from a British prime minister to an Iranian president in three years.

But the extent to which the UK can influence Iran’s decision-making is limited, experts say. “The UK can only ever be part of a wider multilateral effort,” said Michael Stephens, senior associate fellow at Royal United Services Institute, a UK think tank.

“And it comes back to whether Israelis and Iranians want that. The events on the ground are driving the diplomatic push, and not the other way round,” he added.

Mr Shorter’s predecessor Simon Shercliff oversaw the release in 2022 of British-Iranians Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori. His position on Iran was hardened by the execution of British-Iranian Alireza Akbari last year.

“He had a hard time as ambassador but he maintained diplomatic relations in the bumpiest ever period of the Middle East since the Gulf war in 1991,” Mr Stephens said.

The UK is one of the backers of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Nuclear Deal, in which Iran would postpone building nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief, which was tabled by the Obama administration in 2015.

“The UK doesn’t believe in regime change in Iran,” Mr Stephens said. “There is a more stable consensus that the JCPOA was the right way forward. It’s not an enemy country but a hostile state.”