Iran outpost decision up to Obama, Rice says

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a decision on opening a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Iran will probably be left to President-elect Barack Obama's administration.

President George W. Bush had decided in principle to pursue setting up an office in Tehran modeled on the U.S. interests section in the Cuban capital, Havana, Rice said. The plan was interrupted by the war between Russia and Georgia in August.

"At this late moment, I think it is probably better that this decision be left to the next administration," Rice told reporters during a recent briefing in Washington. "Within the context of a firm policy toward Iran, something that reaches out to the Iranian people is very important."

An "interests section," as such low-level diplomatic posts are known, would put American diplomats back in the Iranian capital for the first time in almost three decades. The U.S. severed formal diplomatic relations following the 1979 hostage crisis during President Jimmy Carters administration when Islamic student revolutionaries took over the American Embassy.

Iran's emergence as a potential nuclear power has elevated the country's importance on the U.S. agenda. The Iranian government is defying international demands to curtail its nuclear-development program, which the U.S. suspects may be intended for building a weapon.

Obama has said he wants to confront that situation by expanding diplomacy with Iran as part of a broader assessment of Middle East interests. Bush limited diplomatic contacts with the Iranian government to cooperation on helping Afghanistan and examining disputes involving Iraq. European governments, with U.S. backing, have taken the lead on talking with Iran about the nuclear program.

Based on Bush's decision earlier this year to explore a possible interests section, "we were actually doing the work to see how it could be implemented and what it could do," Rice said. The planning had not reached the point of approaching Iran with the idea, she said.

There were intervening events that made it an unsavory time to raise the issue with the Iranian regime, Rice said, citing a number of other international events, including the Russia-Georgia crisis.

The Tehran office would be able to issue visas and pursue educational and cultural ties, such as exchange visits the two countries have conducted for sports teams this year, she said.

Rice dismissed the Iranian space program's recent test launch of a rocket, reported as successful by state television. The U.S. has expressed concern in the past that the technology is the same as the techonology Iran uses for making long-range ballistic missiles.

"I don't think anybody is confused about the balance of power in the Persian Gulf," Rice said.