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Interests Section of Iran in the United States
De facto embassy of Iran in Washington D.C. , United States / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the United States[1] is a part of the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, D.C., and is the de facto consular representation of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the United States.
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Iranian students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran during the 1979 Iranian Revolution, leading to the breaking of diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States. As part of the Algiers Accords of 1981, the two countries agreed to establish "interests sections" to look after their interests in the other country. Each country picked a third country, which had friendly relations with both sides, to be its protecting power in the other capital.
The Iranian embassy was seized by the U.S. State Department in retaliation for Iran's seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. As a result, the Iranian Interests Section operated out of a small office on Wisconsin Avenue associated with the Pakistani Embassy between 1981 and 2015.[2][3] It has since relocated to a larger office space on 23rd Street NW, near D.C.'s Washington Circle.[4]
Algeria originally served as Iran's protecting power in the U.S. However, when Iranian leaders expressed support for the Islamic Salvation Front in January 1992, Algeria refused to continue serving as Iran's protecting power. In March 1992, Pakistan agreed to undertake a mandate as Iran's protecting power in the U.S.[5]
The Interests Section provides all essential consular services to Iranian citizens and issued visas to foreigners. Since the severing of diplomatic ties by Canada in 2012, the Section also handles the consular affairs of Iranian citizens residing in Canada.[1]