Iran is suspicious of US public diplomacy (IranVNC.com)

Iran is suspicious of US public diplomacy

William Skane, the executive director of US National Academies, has called Irans interrogation of a member of a US scientific delegation in December 2008, a very serious breach of understandings reached between Tehran and Washington on scientific and academic exchanges.

Glenn Schweitzer, the Academies director of Eurasian programs, was detained on 4 December by two men who identified themselves as security officials, according to a statement by the Academies.

He was interrogated for nine hours over two days in his Tehran hotel, before being allowed to leave Iran with the rest of the delegation on 7 December.

In a statement issued on 26 December, Skane also said that the Academies could not continue sending scientists to Iran until receiving clear assurances from Iran that it would guarantee their safety.

In the meantime, Skane said that due to the scientific importance of the exchanges, the Academies were prepared to arrange scientific exchanges with Iranian scientists outside Iran.

The Academies have been carrying out non-governmental exchanges with Iran for eight years.

However, Iran is suspicious of the US intentions in pursuing these exchanges.

On January 5th, Hasan Qashqavi, Irans Foreign Ministry spokesperson said: Naturally, the spirit of exchange between people of Iran and America has always been welcomed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. But ultimately as you well know, these exchanges are being heavily controlled by the US Department of State. There is a section in the US Department of State called the public diplomacy section, which controls heavily all academic, scientific, cultural, artistic exchanges. (Beginning clip 13) use for their own diplomatic ends. The main problem is that, of course, the Islamic Republic would not like these exchanges between people to become tools for US Department of States abuse. And so we watch this matter with a lot of sensitivity. (Start of clip 14) However if this were not the case, of course there is no problem in the spirit of exchange between people. This is always a good thing. But it is an official section in the [US] State Department. With that excuse they say, apart from official diplomacy, we also have public diplomacy. And a part of this public diplomacy is the intense control over writers, university professors, and [for this] there is a special section in the US Department of State.

The U.S. called Irans treatment of Schweitzer yet another example of the Iranian governments refusal to abide by international norms and called on Tehran to support bilateral exchange programs.

We once again urge the government of Iran to stand by its public statements and fully support scientific and academic exchanges that foster greater mutual understanding between the Iranian and American people, State Department spokesperson, Nicole Thompson, was quoted by AP as telling reporters on December 30th.

We do not believe that the Iranian people should be further isolated by the irresponsible actions of the government, she added.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Iran
• is
• suspicious
• of
• US
• public
• diplomacy
• (IranVNC.com)

[sohrab2012]

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