Rice: US interested in Teheran mission

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman says his country hasn't received an official request from Washington.

By THE MEDIA LINE STAFF, AP
Condoleezza Rice 224.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
Condoleezza Rice 224.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
US Secretary of State of Condoleezza Rice told reporters on Sunday that the outgoing Bush administration was still interested in establishing a diplomatic outpost in Teheran after an absence of 30 years. Rice made the statement during a press meeting during a trip to India and Kazakhstan. A spokesman for the Islamic Republic's Foreign Ministry on Monday said Iran had not received any request from the United States to establish a diplomatic outpost in Teheran. Hasan Qashqavi told reporters that Washington had not made a "formal" request to assign diplomats in the Iranian capital. US and Iran broke off diplomatic relations after 52 US diplomats were held captive for 444 days when Iranian radicals took over the American Embassy in Teheran in 1979 in the wake of the student-led revolution that overthrew the shah of Iran, who was a close friend of Washington, and installed an Islamic republic. Officials in the administration said the decision would be left for the next president in order to reduce the impact of the issue on the presidential campaigns, the Tehran Times reported. The newspaper also quoted the speaker of the Iranian parliament, 'Ali Larijani, as saying that the offer was not a sincere one and if the US were interested in closer ties with Iran, it would take up Iran's suggestion for direct flights between the two countries. Currently the US has an interest office within the Swiss Embassy in Teheran. Meanwhile, the two countries are still locked in a diplomatic tug-of-war over Iran's nuclear program. Teheran claims it is for peaceful purposes such as power production, while Washington argues the program is intended for the production of weapons grade uranium, which is essential in the construction of nuclear weapons.