U.S. virtual embassy is part of government's effort to increase interaction with Iranian people - spokesperson
The U.S. virtual embassy is part of government's effort to
increase interaction with Iranian people, the State Department
Persian language spokesperson Alan Eyre told Trend news agency.
Answering the question about how much the establishment of a
virtual embassy helped the U.S. government, Eyre said the embassy
was only a part of a big effort.
"So far, the performance has been good, despite Iranian
government's efforts to prevent access to the embassy," Eyre
said.
The U.S. established the virtual embassy for Iranian people in
2011. In an introduction to the site, the State Department said the
virtual embassy was set up to provide "another perspective and
another source of information, so you can make up your own minds
about the U.S., our concerns and about the Iranian government's
activities at home and abroad."
"While Iranian government is determined to hold an "electronic
curtain" between themselves and the rest of the world, the U.S.
government is trying to establish more links between Iranian people
and the outside world. The virtual embassy is a part of that
effort," Eyre said.
The "real" U.S. Embassy in Tehran has been shut since 1979, when it
was taken over by Islamic students who held 52 embassy staff
members hostage for 444 days. Relations between the two nations
have been severed ever since.