--- title: Iran Sanctions: Britain Wants to Send a Trade Mission to Iran description: UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said that he wanted to send a trade delegation to Iran canonical: https://time.com/4050073/uk-iran-sanctions/ author: Chris Matthews article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-25T14:52:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T11:16:38.034Z article:section: Politics og:title: British Finance Minister Wants To Send A Trade Mission To Iran og:description: It is following the lead of other European countries. og:url: https://time.com/4050073/uk-iran-sanctions/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2bb78f004bd3253/69876c64cd1bbafddd6f3e4a/chancellor-of-the-exchequer-george-osborne.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: U.K. Chancellor Of The Exchequer George Osborne Delivers Autumn Budget Statement og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: British Finance Minister Wants To Send A Trade Mission To Iran twitter:description: It is following the lead of other European countries. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2bb78f004bd3253/69876c64cd1bbafddd6f3e4a/chancellor-of-the-exchequer-george-osborne.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # UK Finance Minister Wants to Send a Trade Mission to Iran > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Chris Matthews / Fortune](https://time.com/author/chris-matthews/) ## Chris Matthews / Fortune Sep 25, 2015 2:52 PM UTC  George Osborne U.K. chancellor of the exchequer leaves the HM Treasury building before heading to the Houses of Parliament to deliver his Autumn statement in London on Dec. 3, 2014. George Osborne U.K. chancellor of the exchequer leaves the HM Treasury building before heading to the Houses of Parliament to deliver his Autumn statement in London on Dec. 3, 2014. Simon Dawson—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Chris Matthews / Fortune](https://time.com/author/chris-matthews/) ## Chris Matthews / Fortune Sep 25, 2015 2:52 PM UTC While the Republican presidential field is busy fighting over who hates Iran the most, European leaders are flocking to do business there. [In an interview with ](http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/98d03bfa-62e4-11e5-9846-de406ccb37f2.html?siteedition=intl#axzz3mkRbZwch)[_the Financial Times_](http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/98d03bfa-62e4-11e5-9846-de406ccb37f2.html?siteedition=intl#axzz3mkRbZwch)_,_ UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said that he wanted to take what might be “Britain’s biggest-ever trade delegation to Iran.” “We can either sit on the sidelines, watch the world move ahead and gradually decline — plenty of other countries are taking that path — or we can get out there and plant our flag in the ground,” he told the _FT._ Britain is following the lead of other countries which had been imposing U.S. led sanctions against Iran to punish it for a secret nuclear program that broke international treaties. France, for instance,[ sent a large trade delegation to Tehran this week.](http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/21/end-of-iran-sanctions-could-spell-boon-for-france.html) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4050073/uk-iran-sanctions/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4050073/uk-iran-sanctions/"},"headline":"UK Finance Minister Wants to Send a Trade Mission to Iran","datePublished":"2015-09-25T14:52:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:16:38.034Z","description":"It is following the lead of other European countries.","url":"https://time.com/4050073/uk-iran-sanctions/","keywords":["Iran","republicans","France","Britain","Nuclear Weapons","trade","uk","United Kingdom"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2bb78f004bd3253/69876c64cd1bbafddd6f3e4a/chancellor-of-the-exchequer-george-osborne.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chris Matthews / Fortune"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2bb78f004bd3253/69876c64cd1bbafddd6f3e4a/chancellor-of-the-exchequer-george-osborne.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.K. Chancellor Of The Exchequer George Osborne Delivers Autumn Budget Statement","caption":"U.K. Chancellor Of The Exchequer George Osborne Delivers Autumn Budget Statement","creditText":"Simon Dawson—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/iran/","name":"Iran"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4050073/uk-iran-sanctions/","name":"UK Finance Minister Wants to Send a Trade Mission to Iran"}}]}] ```