Iranian Visa Office? (RWC)

Secretary of State Rice is considering opening a US passport Visa office in Tehran, Iran.

We have no embassy in that country, and haven’t had one since the Iranians seized our embassy, and took American hostages, almost 30 years ago.

Last I was in Tehran, a few years ago, the embassy compound had been turned into a military camp.  Sloppy peasant soldiers walked the brown clay walls around the huge compound.  An anti-CIA book store for tourists was at the main gates.

So here is Iran trying to build a nuclear weapon, maybe to use on Israel and the West, and here is the quote from Ms. Rice with her reasons for possibly opening a Visa office in Tehran, like the one the US has in Havana:

“We want more Iranians visiting the United States. We want the efforts that we have engaged in to have Iranian artists in the United States and American sports people in Iran. We are determined to find ways to reach out to the Iranian people.” Iranian artists?

A US Visa office for Iranians already exists in Dubai but Secretary Rice said it is  difficult for some Iranians to get there.

If they find it hard to get to Dubai they’ll find it even harder to get to New York or Los Angeles.

None of this has apparently been decided but is the subject of internal State Department noodling, so to speak. 

And no one can “noodle” like the State Department.

Comments

[Editor, Common Ground News Blog]

I'm finding it hard to discern your point here - are you just skeptical about the feasability of such an office, or do you suspect that visas attained there will be used for more nefarious purposes than "art?"

If all that you're saying is that the State Department is simply gesturing and that this visa office in Tehran amounts to little more than a political manoeuvre, than I tend to agree with you. "If they find it hard to get to Dubai they’ll find it even harder to get to New York..." True enough.

However, so many of this administration's shortcomings regarding foreign policy have come about because of a refusal to engage. The US is shouldering such a huge burden in Iraq because it abrasively estranged its allies; America's relationship with much of the Middle East is so tenuous because of the choice to blacklist "state sponsors of terror."

If the worst thing about this Tehran visa office is its implausibility, is it really such a bad idea? It may contribute significantly to thaw US-Iranian relations at a time when the Bush administration is making overtures suggesting a desire to open dialogue with Iran and, it would appear in today's news, Syria. Even if Burns' Iran meeting amounted to little more than "small talk," the fact that we've returned to the table is reason enough to hope for less hostile - and thus, more hopeful - relations in the region.

[winston]

Couldn't agree more. good one

[Soft Cialis]

my friend is an iranian girl, she has been working in UAE for about a year and half and has her visa from free zone. the company is going to close its office and another employee in Dubai wants to hire her. she is not sure if she can get residence visa in Dubai.
being and iranian ,she has heard that they dont issue visa to them in dubai...since she has been in UAE for more than a year how much is her chance to get Dubai residency. she is single.