Iran-US
The US is seeking to establish a diplomatic presence in Tehran for the first time in nearly 30 years, a British daily reported from Washington Thursday.

The Guardian newspaper described the aim "as part of a remarkable turnaround in policy by President George Bush."
Throughout his eight-year tenure, Bush has previously pursued a "hawkish approach to Iran," it said.

"An announcement will be made in the next month to establish a US interests section - a halfway house to setting up a full embassy," the paper's Washington bureau chief, Ewen MacAskill, said he had learned.

The report comes after White House announced on Wednesday that William Burns, a senior state department official, is to attend the EU High Representative Javier Solana's Geneva meeting with Iran's Supreme National Security Council secretary Saeed Jalili on Saturday.

"A thaw appears to be under way," said MacAskil, who was the Guardian's former diplomatic editor.

"Burns is to sit at the table with Iranian officials despite Bush repeatedly ruling out direct talks on the nuclear issue until Iran suspends," he said.

The Guardian believed it was a frequent complaint of the Iranians that they "want to deal directly with the Americans instead of its surrogates, Britain, France and Germany."
"Bush has taken a hard line with Iran throughout the last seven years but, in the dying days of his administration, it is believed he is keen to have a positive legacy that he can point to," it said.

"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 article said.

"A US interest section would see diplomats stationed in Tehran for the first time since the hostage crisis that began when hundreds of students, as part of the Iranian revolution that led to fall of the Shah, stormed the US embassy in 1979," it said.

The Guardian believed the special interests section would be similar to the one in Havana, Cuba, which the US established in 1977, 16 years after breaking relations in 1961.

The special interests section carries out all the functions of an embassy, but in terms of protocol, is expected to be still under the Swiss embassy, which has represented US interests in Iran, only that it would now be staffed by Americans and independent of the Swiss.

MacAskil said the US state department has been pressing the White House for the last two years to re-establish diplomatic relations with Tehran by setting up an interest section, but was opposed by deputy US president Dick Cheney and other hawks.

He also said the establishment of an interests section "undercuts one of the main planks of foreign policy advocated by the Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, who argues for direct negotiations with Iran."
The White House, he said, has been working in tandem over the last month with Obama's Republican rival, John McCain, who is seeking to replace Bush in November.

Unlike the US, Iran already has an interests section in Washington.

Having a reciprocal one in Tehran was also seen having benefits for Iranians seeking US visas instead of the present arrangement of having to travel to Dubai.