Embassy of the United States, Tehran

Embassy of the United States, Tehran
Native name
Persian: سفارت ایالات متحده آمریکا، تهران‎‎


Location Iran Tehran, Iran
Coordinates 35°42′29″N 51°25′27″E / 35.708056°N 51.424167°E / 35.708056; 51.424167Coordinates: 35°42′29″N 51°25′27″E / 35.708056°N 51.424167°E / 35.708056; 51.424167
Opened 1951 (1951)
Closed 1979 (1979)
Ambassador Loy W. Henderson (first)
Bruce Laingen (last)
Location of Embassy of the United States, Tehran in Iran

The Embassy of the United States of America in Tehran was the United States of America's diplomatic mission in the Imperial State of Iran. Direct bilateral diplomatic relations between the two governments were severed following the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and the subsequent seizure of the embassy in November 1979.[1][2]

History

Chancery Building seen from Taleghani Avenue in 2005. Banner reads at bottom, "Death to America."

The embassy was designed in 1948 by the architect Ides van der Gracht, the designer of the Embassy of the United States in Ankara. It was a long, low two-story brick building, similar to American high schools built in the 1930s and 1940s. For this reason, the building was nicknamed "Henderson High" by the embassy staff, referring to Loy W. Henderson, who became America's ambassador to Iran just after construction was completed in 1951.[3]

The US diplomatic mission has been defunct and the building has not been used by the U.S. since the Iran hostage crisis of 1979.[1][2] Since then, the United States government has been represented in Iran by the United States Interests Section of the Embassy of Switzerland in Tehran.[4] The name currently given to the compound by many Iranians is variously translated as "espionage den," "den of espionage", and "nest of spies".[1][5]

After the fall of the embassy, the Revolutionary Guard used it as a training center, and continue to maintain the complex.[6] The brick walls that form the perimeter (the embassy grounds are the size of a city block) feature a number of anti-American murals commissioned by the government of Iran.[6] The site has also housed a bookstore and a museum (both are closed to foreigners and the general Iranian public, though exceptions do exist.[7]). The Great Seal of the United States is badly damaged, but still visible at the entryway.

The Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line published documents seized in the embassy (including painstakingly reconstructed shredded documents) in a series of books called "Documents from the US Espionage Den" (Persian: اسناد لانه جاسوس امریكا Asnāde lāne jasusi Amrikā).[8] These books included telegrams, correspondence, and reports from the United States Department of State and Central Intelligence Agency, some of which remain classified to this day.

Former Iranian Embassy

The Former Embassy of Iran in Washington, D.C. is also defunct as Iran does not currently have an embassy in the United States. Its interests are handled through the Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the United States at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington D.C.

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Embassy of the United States in Tehran.
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
  1. 1 2 3 "Former American Embassy in Iran Attracts Pride and Dust". New York Times. 2013-10-31.
  2. 1 2 "http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/30/politics/iran-embassy-mistrust/". CNN. 2014-01-30. External link in |title= (help)
  3. ↑ The architecture of diplomacy: building America's embassies ADST-DACOR diplomats and diplomacy series. Jane C. Loeffler. Publisher Princeton Architectural Press, 1998. ISBN 1-56898-138-4 pp.56
  4. ↑ Embassy of Switzerland in Iran - Foreign Interests Section, Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (page visited on 4 April 2015).
  5. ↑ Federation of American Scientists on the Espionage Den
  6. 1 2 "The Great Satan's Old Den: Visiting Tehran's U.S. Embassy". TIME. 2009-07-14.
  7. ↑ Inside The Former US Embassy In Tehran, Iran
  8. ↑ Documents from the U.S. Espionage Den
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