Iran FM likely to take back Qolhak garden from British embassy

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast announced that his ministry is likely to take action to take back ownership of Qolhak Garden from the British embassy.Speaking to FNA on Sunday, Mehman-Parast pointed to the Tehran municipality's litigation against the British embassy over the ownership of the Qolhak Garden, and stated, "We have been informed that the municipality is pursuing this case, and we (the foreign ministry) will take action wherever necessary." Tehran and the British embassy have been in quarrel over the ownership of the garden for years. Iran has called on the British mission to return the Qolhak Garden which has been possessed illegally since the Qajar Dynasty. Iran argues that the Qolhak Garden belonged to Iranian Qajar King Nassereddin Shah and that the British Council took possession of this garden by force. Some 162 members of the Iranian Parliament wrote a letter in 2006 to the then speaker, Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, demanding an investigation over the ownership of the Qolhak Garden. The investigation team reported that the garden belongs to Iran completely. A meeting was organized in July 2007 to address the ownership of the compound. However the British side did not attend. After years of debates, Qalibaf on Monday eventually initiated a lawsuit against the embassy over the ownership of the Qolhak Garden. "I order my colleagues in the Tehran municipality to send the British embassy's transgression case on Qolhak Garden to the Judiciary as soon as possible," Qalibaf said in a meeting with a number of Tehran municipality directors at the time. After his remarks, Chairman of Tehran's city council Mehdi Chamran voiced support for Qalibaf's decision for suing the British embassy. Chamran, who was addressing a public session of the city council on Tuesday, said the British embassy's ownership of the Qolhak Garden should be renounced, specially after the embassy staff cut and burnt 310 trees in the garden. "According to the national laws, the embassy should pay a 5 billion rials (approximately USD400,000) fine for cutting the trees and the garden should be confiscated in the interest of the people," he stated, reminding that the law covers all cases and lands across the country and does not just pertain to this single case. The British embassy has cut and burnt 310 trees in the Qolhak Garden. Meantime, eye-witnesses said that the British diplomats cut and burnt more trees in the garden Saturday night. Witnesses also said that the embassy did not allow Tehran's firefighters to enter the garden to put out the fire.