Robert Nigel Paul Macaire CMG (born 19 February 1966) is a British diplomat who served as UK's Ambassador to Iran from 2018 to 2021. Macaire has held a number of senior posts in the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' ministries of foreign affairs, it was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreig ...

(FCO), and prior to his Iran posting he was the Director of Political Risk in

BG Group BG Group plc was a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in Reading, United Kingdom. On 8 April 2015, Royal Dutch Shell announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire BG Group for $70 billion, subject to regulatory and ...

plc.

Career

Rob Macaire joined the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

in 1987, and worked on a number of issues including procurement policy and supporting Special Forces, before transferring to the

(FCO) in 1990. His first diplomatic posting was in

Bucharest, Romania Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

from 1991 to 1995. He returned to the UK to work on the Middle East, following which he was posted to Washington, as First Secretary Middle East and Counter Terrorism, from 1998 to 2002. This included dealing with the aftermath of the

9/11 terrorist attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...

. In 2002 Macaire returned to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to head the Counter Terrorism Policy Department in the Foreign Office in the immediate post 9/11 period. He served as Political Counsellor in New Delhi, India from 2004 to 2006, during which time he led a team responding to the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time ( UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern ...

in Phuket, Thailand. He returned to London as Director of Consular Services, responsible for all support to UK nationals abroad, including crisis response. In 2008 he was appointed British High Commissioner to Nairobi, Kenya, where he served until 2011. In Nairobi, he was involved among other things with Kenyans' efforts to fight corruption in their country, support for Kenya's new constitution in 2010, and was responsible for UK dealings with Somalia, including kidnap and hijack cases. Macaire has also worked as Director of Political Risk in

plc. On 14 March 2018 the British

announced Rob Macaire as the new envoy to

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

, replacing

Nicholas Hopton Nicholas Dunster Hopton (born 8 October 1965) is a British diplomat who was the head of the UK embassy in Libya. Hopton was educated at St Peter's School, York and Magdalene College, Cambridge. He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1 ...

Arrest in Iran

Macaire was arrested on 11 January 2020 during protests in

about the shooting down of Flight 752 to Ukraine, but released shortly afterwards. In reaction, the FCO described his arrest as "a flagrant violation of international law", and Foreign Secretary

Dominic Raab Dominic Rennie Raab (; born 25 February 1974) is a British politician who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Secretary of State for Justice, and Lord Chancellor since October 2022, having previously served from 2021 t ...

suggested that Iran was engaged in a "march to pariah status". Macaire maintained he did not attend a protest, but a vigil for victims of the plane crash and noted that "arresting diplomats is of course illegal". Iranian judges called on the government to expel Macaire by declaring him

persona non grata In diplomacy, a ' (Latin: "person not welcome", plural: ') is a status applied by a host country to foreign diplomats to remove their protection of diplomatic immunity from arrest and other types of prosecution. Diplomacy Under Article 9 of the ...

as placards and cutouts of him were burnt, and protesters chanting 'Death to the UK' outside the British Embassy in the capital

. This is not thought to be a formal declaration and so does not have any legal standing with regard to his diplomatic status.

Personal life

Macaire was educated at Cranleigh School and won an Exhibition to

St Edmund Hall, Oxford St Edmund Hall (sometimes known as The Hall or informally as Teddy Hall) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The college claims to be "the oldest surviving academic society to house and educate undergraduates in any universit ...

(MA Modern History). In 1996, he married Alice (née Mackenzie). While they were stationed in Kenya, Alice founded and chaired the initiative which resulted in the transformation of the

Karura Forest Karura Forest is an urban forest in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The forest was gazetted in 1932UNEPKenya, Atlas of our changing environment – Chapter 5Page 158 and is managed by the Kenya Forest ServiceKenya Forest ServiceSecuring K ...

. They have two daughters.

References

External links

Debrett's People of Today
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macaire, Robert 1966 births Living people People educated at Cranleigh School Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Iran Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Civil servants in the Foreign Office