Wednesday, July 16, 2008

US to Open Interests Section in Tehran

The US is planning to establish a diplomatic presence in Tehran for the first time in 30 years, The Guardian reported today. The announcement will be made in the next month to establish a US interests section in Tehran. Iran already has an interests section in Washington.

The report came hours after the US State Department announced that it was sending one of its top diplomats to Geneva on Saturday to join other high ranking officials from Group 5+1 at a meeting with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator. William Burns, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, will meet Saeed Jalili, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, at the gathering.

The turn of events in US-Iran relations is remarkable and represents a clear break with past Bush administration policy of not dealing with Iran directly.

The opening of an interests section in Tehran will be a major development in restoring normal diplomatic relations between the two countries. US closed its embassy in Tehran in 1979 when militants occupied the embassy and took 52 US diplomats hostage for 444 days.

1 comment:

Kemjika said...

who would ever think that after 30 yrs of stupid non-official non-communication, tons of terror activities and illegal infringements thatt US would make such a gesture to iran. To me, this shows that the US cannot easily trap iran as it wants to. This is more success for iran, which i am happy to see. ALso, i hope US and israel understand that if israel attacks iran, these american diplomats could be kidnapped. Wow.... this is quite some interesting and insightful news...