US 'virtual embassy' in Tehran part of charm offensive

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, says Washington is providing technology and training to help Iranians overcome their government's determined efforts to censor the internet.

Amid soaring tensions with Iran, the United States has attempted to reach out to ordinary Iranians by announcing plans to open a "virtual embassy in Tehran" that will provide online information about visas and student exchanges.

The internet-based diplomatic mission will be ready by the end of the year, Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, told the Persian language television services of the BBC and Voice of America on Wednesday evening. Both stations are banned in Iran but, despite jamming and cyber interference, are accessible via illegal satellite dishes and online.

The US severed relations with Iran in April 1980 following the seizure of its embassy in Tehran five months earlier.

Ms Clinton said Washington was providing technology and training to help Iranians overcome their government's determined efforts to censor the internet.

Her high-profile "people-to-people" charm offensive comes as Washington is seeking international support for further sanctions on Tehran following US accusations that Iran plotted to assassinate Saudi Arabia's top diplomat in Washington.

Iran has denied the allegations, ridiculing them as a "politically-motivated" and far-fetched attempt to disrupt Tehran's supposedly "brotherly" relations with its Gulf Arab neighbours. Concern over more punitive economic measures and fears that the US could even resort to military action have stirred nationalistic sentiment in Iran.

Many Iranians blame their regime for their country's growing isolation, but are alarmed by Washington's increasingly hawkish rhetoric.

Ms Clinton was keen to address those anxieties.

"My goal in speaking to you today is to clearly communicate to the people of Iran, particularly the very large population of young people, that the United States has no argument with you. We want to support your aspirations" for freedom, she said.

Ms Clinton acknowledged that existing sanctions, aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear programme, sometimes caused difficulties for ordinary Iranians, but insisted they were the best tool to pressure the Iranian regime which was moving closer to becoming a "military dictatorship".

The US, however, is walking a fine line as it tries to broaden the wedge between the Iranian regime and its restless people while Washington pushes for more punitive measures.

After the alleged assassination plot against the Saudi ambassador to the US, Washington has raised the possibility of sanctions against the Central Bank of Iran, a move that Iranian opponents of their regime say would be humiliating.

"It's a double-edged sword. If the Americans really want to up the economic pressure, they'd move on Iran's Central Bank," Scott Lucas, an expert on relations between the US and Iran at Birmingham University in England, said.

"However, that would have the effect of alienating the Iranian people," he added in a telephone interview.

Many Iranians, including prominent regime critics, are highly sceptical of US charges that Tehran was behind an alleged and seemingly outlandish plot to use a whisky-loving Iranian-American used car salesman to assassinate the Saudi diplomat with the help of a Mexican drugs cartel.

Iran's reformist former president, Mohammad Khatami, said recently: "It sounds like more attempts to find pretexts against us are coming out every day, especially given that the situation here is now more difficult."

Ali Yunesi, a former intelligence minister who served under Mr Khatami, agreed the plot allegations were "fantastical". But, in a recent interview with Iran's Etemaad daily, he criticised the regime for pursuing a foreign policy that "created enemies".

Ms Clinton said the power struggle within the Iranian government could potentially present an opening for ordinary Iranians. "I think there is an opportunity for people within the country to influence how the debate turns out."

She also accused Iran of showing "aggressive behaviour" towards its neighbours and of trying to "hijack the so-called Arab Spring awakening".

One Iranian activist told the Inter Press Service that the opposition's task has become much harder now that it has to "fight for freedom and democracy inside the country and against foreign threats in the international arena".