Iran on Thursday said that plans by the United States to set up an online embassy to attract Iranians would fail, the website of state television network IRIB reported. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Farsi programme of the BBC on Wednesday that the US planned to set up a "virtual embassy" by the end of the year to improve Iranian understanding of the US and to advise Iranians on tourist and student visas.
"Her comments should not be taken seriously, as such remarks reflect solely the lack of US political awareness that such moves would merely strengthen unity in Iran," parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani told the IRIB site. The speaker said that such efforts were aimed at covering up internal problems in the Democratic Party before the US presidential elections next year.
He also accused the Jewish lobby in the US of being behind the project. Iran and the US have had no diplomatic ties and no embassies in each other's capitals for over three decades. The US is represented in Tehran by Switzerland and Iran in Washington by Pakistan. Referring to Clinton's remarks about supporting opposition movements inside Iran, Larijani said the US should know that even the protest movements in the Arab world had been inspired by the Iranian revolution of 1979.