U.S. NGO to open office in Iran

PanARMENIAN.Net - The United States has granted permission for a U.S. non-governmental organization to open an office in Iran, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday, but said Washington's Tehran policy remained unchanged.



In a rare move, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) granted a license to the Princeton, New Jersey-based American-Iranian Council (AIC) to operate in Iran.



A U.S. official said the decision to allow the NGO to go to Iran was "carefully reviewed" within the U.S. government.



"We want to encourage this kind of cultural exchange and mutual understanding" between the U.S. and Iranian people "while trying to isolate the regime," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, Reuters reports.



The United States is at loggerheads with Tehran on a range of issues, including Iran's nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at building an atomic bomb. Tehran argues it is for peaceful power purposes.



The two nations have been antagonists since the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 and the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Switzerland handles U.S. interests in Iran as Washington has no diplomatic ties with Tehran.