The United States will announce in the next month that it plans to establish a diplomatic presence in Tehran for the first time in 30 years, a British newspaper said on Thursday.
In a front-page report, the Guardian said Washington would open a US interests section in the Iranian capital. The un-sourced report by the newspaper's Washington correspondent said: "The Guardian has learned that an announcement will be made in the next month to establish a US interests section in Tehran, a halfway house to setting up a full embassy. The move will see US diplomats stationed in the country."
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Senior US diplomat William Burns said in testimony to Congress last week the United States was looking to opening up an interest section in Tehran but had not made a decision yet.
The Guardian said the development was "a remarkable turnaround in policy by President George Bush who has pursued a hawkish approach to Iran throughout his time in office."
The return of US diplomats to Iran is
dependent on agreement by Tehran. But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
indicated earlier this week that he was not against the opening of a US mission.
The report quoted Ahmadinejad as saying earlier this week, in response to a question about a possible US interests section: "We will receive favorably any action which will help to reinforce relations between the peoples." He added: "We have not received any official request but we think that the development of relations between the two peoples is something correct."
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke in Washington to a similar effect when she said: "We want more Iranians visiting the United States ... We are determined to reach out to the Iranian people."
Washington said on Wednesday it was sending William Burns to join atomic talks with Iran in Switzerland this weekend to signal to Tehran and others that Washington wanted a diplomatic solution to their nuclear impasse.
US media have reported that the State Department is considering opening an interests section that could mean US diplomats returning to Tehran but operating under another country's flag.
The United States cut off diplomatic ties with Tehran during the 1979-1981 hostage crisis, in which a group of militant Iranian students held 52 US diplomats hostage at the American embassy for 444 days.
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