Iran Blocks US ‘Virtual Embassy’
By RFE RL
(RFE/RL) — Iranian Internet users say the country’s authorities have blocked a web-based U.S. “embassy” to Iran, less than a day after it went online.
The English- and Persian-language website, designed by Washington as a “virtual embassy,” had been briefly available to Iranian Internet users after it was launched on December 6.
It could not be accessed the next day. Instead, the Internet address displayed a message saying access was “not possible.”
The United States said it wanted to use the “virtual embassy” to reach out to Iranians, despite the absence of official ties.
The United States closed its embassy in Tehran and broke off diplomatic relations in 1979 after Islamist militants and students seized 52 Americans and held them hostage for 444 days at the U.S. diplomatic mission in the Iranian capital.
