IRAN. The United States is considering opening an Interest Section in Tehran. That way, they would be able to get closer to Iranian society without reestablishing official contacts.

    The United States is considering opening a diplomatic outpost in Tehran, according to official sources quoted by The Washington Post and The Associated Press. The ostensible goal: to demonstrate US displeasure over the planned new natural gas contract between Iran and Switzerland - which presently represents Washington's interests in Iran - just when there is a major power struggle going on over Iran's nuclear program. In fact, according to experts close to the issue, a concern to get closer to Iranian society without reestablishing official contacts - broken off the last thirty years - glimmers through this United States initiative.

    Swiss Embassy

    Since the hostage-taking episode at the United States Embassy that followed the 1979 Islamic Revolution, diplomatic ties have been frozen between the two countries. Consequently, the United States depends on the Swiss Confederation Embassy in Tehran for transmitting American messages to the Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also used that embassy as the channel for delivering the famous letter he addressed over a year ago to his American homologue, George Bush.

    On their side, Iranian interests are represented in Washington by Pakistan's embassy. But unlike Tehran, where no American diplomat is present, the Iranian section has several Islamic Republic officials available who are authorized to issue visas to American tourists and journalists. They also renew the passports of the many diaspora Iranians who live in the United States.

    The installation of an American section in Tehran would mark an unprecedented return of the American "Great Satan" to Iran. It would also symbolize the pursuit of the State Department's stated desire to develop an exchange with the Iranian population. In the course of the last few years, Washington has intensified its efforts to achieve a better understanding of the Iranian reality of today. American consulates in Istanbul and in Baku, Azerbaijan, already have specialized personnel available charged primarily with Iranian matters.

    Two years ago, the State Department also opened an "Iran" section within its Dubai consulate. Comprising half a dozen Farsi-speaking experts, this new office's mission is to attempt to decode the Islamic Republic's complex structure and to encourage a wind of change on the other side of the Persian Gulf.

    "Reaching Out"

    Asked about the new American section in Tehran while on a plane taking her to a Berlin conference on the Palestinians, American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did not deny this plan. "The United States has long sought means to reach out to Iranians. We have a site in Dubai where they can obtain a visa, but we know that it's difficult for Iranians sometimes to get to Dubai," she noted, and then added, "We want more Iranians visiting the United States.... We are determined to reach out to the Iranian people." Several sources close to the issue confirmed to Le Temps that this decision "has nothing to do with American displeasure over the Iranian-Swiss gas project."

    For the moment, Tehran has not rejected outright the idea of opening an American Interest Section. "This kind of news is heavily mediatized and the motives for its diffusion are not clear. In principle, Iranian officials examine requests that are transmitted to them through official channels," declared an Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry official cited by the IRNA press agency. Nonetheless, this project risks setting off some sparks among the Iranian regime's hardliners. And Washington is aware of that. "It will allow us to reach young people, to speak to dissidents - which the regime will not appreciate," acknowledged an official, quoted anonymously by The Washington Post on Monday.

    In concrete terms, this new section could, in fact, operate according to the same principle as the one that presently exists in Cuba - another country diplomatically estranged from Washington - that is, to develop exchanges with students and opponents. Enough to discomfit certain Islamic Republic extremists who regularly accuse local intellectuals and journalists of being "spies in the pay of America." Last year, several Iranian-American researchers and academics were arrested and detained for the entire summer in the Evin Prison after the Iranian authorities accused them of wanting to organize a "velvet revolution."

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    Translation: Truthout French language editor Leslie Thatcher.