Iran, UK foreign ministers in rare direct contact amid tensions

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has spoken by phone with his British counterpart Yvette Cooper, an Iranian foreign ministry statement said on Saturday, in a rare case of direct contact between the two countries.

The ministry said that in Friday's call the ministers "stressed the need to continue consultations at various levels to strengthen mutual understanding and pursue issues of mutual interest".

A UK government source said Cooper "emphasised the need for a diplomatic solution on Iran's nuclear programme and raised a number of other issues".

The source in London said Cooper raised the case of Lindsay and Craig Foreman, a British couple detained in Iran for nearly a year on suspicion of espionage.

The Iranian ministry statement did not mention the case of the two Britons.

It said Araghchi criticised "the irresponsible approach of the three European countries towards the Iranian nuclear issue", referring to Britain, France and Germany.

The three countries at the end of September initiated the

reinstatement of UN sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear programme.

The Foremans, both in their early fifties, were seized in January as they passed through Kerman, in central Iran, while on a round-the-world motorbike trip.

Iran accuses the couple of entering the country pretending to be tourists so as to gather information for foreign intelligence services, an allegation the couple's family rejects.

Before Friday's call, the last exchange between the two ministers was in October.