State Department
24 June 2008
State Department officials are acknowledging an internal debate overwhether the United States should open a diplomatic interests section inTehran. Iran said Tuesday it would consider a request from the UnitedStates to open a diplomatic presence. VOA's David Gollust reports fromthe State Department.
The idea of opening a U.S. interestssection in Tehran, first raised in a story Monday by the WashingtonPost, would seem to run counter to the Bush administration's policy ofisolating Iran over its refusal to stop enriching uranium.
Butin a talk with reporters en route to Europe Monday, Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice pointedly refused to rule out such a step, saying shepreferred not to comment on what she termed U.S. internal deliberations.
Onlyhours later, Iran's official news agency said Tehran is ready inprinciple to consider such a request if one is made by the UnitedStates.
Formal diplomatic relations between the two countrieswere severed after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, when studentmilitants took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held Americandiplomats and others hostage for more than a year.
But diplomatsof the two countries have interacted in various venues over the years,and Iran has quietly operated its own interests section in Washingtonfor several years, technically part of the embassy of Pakistan.
Ata news briefing Tuesday, State Department Deputy Spokesman Tom Caseyreiterated comments by Secretary Rice that despite its differences withthe Iranian government, the United States is looking for ways to reachout to the Iranian people.
"Our issues with the current Iraniangovernment including its nuclear program as well as its support forterrorist activities do not in any way mean hostility or animosity onthe part of the U.S. toward the Iranian people and we have greatrespect for the Iranian people and for Iranian civilization," said TomCasey. "And you've seen as well through some of the exchange activitiesthat have been done, based on sports, medicine or art, that we'recontinually looking for ways to be able to find new means to reach outto the Iranian people."
The United States has an office in theGulf state of Dubai dealing with routine visa matters for Iranians whovisit the United States, while the Swiss embassy in Tehran handles U.S.interests in Iran.
Officials here say an American interestssection in Tehran would be similar to the one operated by the UnitedStates in the Cuban capital Havana.
They say it would besomewhat awkward for Iran to turn down a U.S. request for such amission, given Iran's diplomatic presence in Washington, whichoperates openly and even has its own internet website.
SecretaryRice, in her airborne comments Monday, said the United States wantsmore Iranians to visit the United States and acknowledged it isdifficult for would-be Iranian visitors to access the visa office inDubai.
Rice has repeatedly offered open-ended U.S. politicaldialogue with Iran, if the Tehran government heeds U.N. SecurityCouncil calls to suspend its uranium enrichment effort, which officialshere believe is weapons-related.
A senior State Departmentofficial Tuesday declined to assess the chances for an Americaninterests section to be opened in Tehran this year, but citing theexample of the U.S. mission in Havana, he said stranger things havehappened.