Went to a reception at the British Embassy last night to mark the opening of an exhibition of British art at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art .

It was at the Embassy, in 1943, that Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin held the "Tehran Conference" to discuss the opening of a second front in western Europe.

Stalin agreed to an eastern offensive to coincide with the forthcoming western front, and he pressed the Western leaders to proceed with formal preparations for their long-promised invasion of German-occupied France.

On Iran, which Allied forces were partly occupying, they agreed a declaration guaranteeing post-war independence and territorial integrity and promising economic assistance.

Amazing history -- but crap canapes.