Renovation of former U.S. embassy in Teheran
September 12, Teheran (dpa) - The former embassy of the United States
in Teheran is being renovated, according to eye-witnesses Tuesday. Several
workers were seen cleaning the walls of the embassy which are covered with
anti-U.S. slogans and there were also some renovation activities inside
the embassy, the eye-witnesses said.
The reported activity follows a meeting between Parliament Speaker Mehdi
Karrubi with U.S. congressmen last month and the attendance of President
Mohammad Khatami at the U.N. Millennium Summit in New York last week.
Workers at the site said that the cleaning was ``routine'' and was carried
out every year. The did not say whether they would remove the anti-American
slogans.
The former U.S. embassy in northern Teheran has been transformed into
a school for revolutionary guards. Abookshop at the eastern gate of the
embassy is still selling what Iran calls ``secret CIA documents'' found
in the embassy.
The U.S. embassy was stormed in 1979 by students supporting the late
revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. A number of embassy staff
members were detained as hostages and released after 444 days. The incident
led to severance of ties between the two states in 1980.
Hostilities eased somewhat after the election of Mohammad Khatami as
president in 1997 and his message of goodwill to the American nation in
January 1998.
At the Millennium Summit, Khatami reportedly met Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright in a brief encounter and both Albright and President
Bill Clinton followed his speech before the U.N.
Reformists in Iran are accused by the conservative opposition of supporting
a resumption of dialogue with the U.S. which itself is in favour of direct
and ``frank'' talks with Iranian leaders.
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