US Closer to Establishing Diplomatic Outpost in Iran

The Bush administration is moving forward with plans to establish a US interest section—precursor to a formal embassy—in Iran, the Guardian reports. An announcement will come in the next month about the office, which will put US diplomats in Iran for the first time since the hostage crisis in 1979. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad voiced his support for the project earlier this week.

"We will receive favorably any action which will help to reinforce relations between the peoples," said Ahmadinejad. "We have not received any official request, but we think that the development of relations between the two peoples is something correct." (More Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stories.)