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US 'ponders Iran diplomatic base' (updated)

by rahul | July 17, 2008 at 01:46 am | 165 views | add comment

[q url=http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=64315§ionid=351020101]

Updates: Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says the US has yet to make an official request for establishing an interest section in Tehran.

“The US officials prefer to have an American-style approach on the issue and to declare it through media and informed sources,” IRNA quoted Mottaki as saying on Sunday.[/q]

Just ahead of the P5+1 group when American diplomat will meet Iranian nuclear negotiator, there are mounting rumours, expectations and debate over the possible restoration of diplomatic relations between Iran and US. They would be established at the lowest possible level, that is, an "interest section" in a foreign Embassy at Tehran. Iran and US broke diplomatic relations after the American Embassy seizure in Tehran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Now, the restoration could possible be just another offer within the package measures offered to Iran to negotiate the halt of its nuclear programme.

US 'ponders Iran diplomatic base'

By Kim Ghattas
BBC News, Washington

The US state department has refused to confirm or deny reports of plans to establish a US diplomatic presence in Iran for the first time in 30 years.
The UK's Guardian newspaper said the US would announce plans for an interests section in Tehran in the next month. Officials said recently this was being discussed but not actively worked on. The report coincides with another shift in US approach towards Iran, with a top US diplomat planning to attend talks in Geneva with the Iranians on Saturday. With no official confirmation and crucially no denial about US plans to open an interest section in Tehran, it may well be that something is brewing. It is an idea that has been floating around Washington for a few weeks already. In response to this latest report, the state department sent out a note with past comments made by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Last month, she simply said that while US policy towards Iran was known and unchanged, the Iranian people deserved better. Ms Rice added that the US was determined to find ways to reach out to the Iranian people and wanted more Iranians to visit the US.
Conservative critics
While Washington still insists Iran must suspend uranium enrichment - a process the West fears could be used to make nuclear weapons - there seems to be a significant change in US tone. Tehran has an interests section in Washington, where it processes visa applications and which gives it a presence on the ground in the US. But the US has not had a diplomatic presence in Iran since the hostage crisis in 1979 and Iranians have to go to Dubai to get US visas. The talks in Geneva on Saturday will be the first time in 30 years that such a high-ranking US diplomat - the third-most senior in the US - has met Iranian officials. Washington insists that US participation in the talks is a one-time deal and that the diplomat, Under Secretary of State William Burns, will be listening, not negotiating. This has not stopped conservative observers in Washington from criticising the Bush administration for "going soft" on Tehran.

Related article: U.S. plan to meet with Iran heightens debate

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