As European Union member states are considering scaling back the number of Iranian diplomats allowed to operate under official cover in Europe, and have announced that they will limit the number of visas granted to Iranian officials suspected of having intelligence ties, the U.S. State Department has taken no similar measures in the United States, despite its vociferous denuniciations of Tehran's support for terrorism.
According to a register maintained by the State Department's Office of Protocol, 45 Iranian nationals were accredited to the Islamic Republic Interests Section in Washington, DC as of July 1995. Because the United States and Iran do not have diplomatic relations, none of the Iranians have official diplomatic status, and their names are not published in the State Department's Diplomatic List. "They are considered employees of the Iranian Interest Section, not diplomats," a State Department Protocol officer said.
The Iranian Interests Section operates under the umbrella of the Embassy of Pakistan, although it maintains separate offices on Wisconsin avenue. All the Iranians working there have permanent resident status or are dual nationals, the State Department said, making it difficult to take any action against them.
However, it was unclear why the State Department allowed them to maintain such a large staff. "Forty-five? You've got to be kidding," a aide to Senator Alfonse D'Amato told The Iran Brief. "They ought to be allowed to have four or five. What do they need all those people for?"
Iranian exiles have long complained that the Interests Section is used to spy on the Iranian-American community. Representatives from the Interests Section regularly attend cultural and social events within the Iranian community, and maintain close ties to an Islamic Center in Potomac, MD that is directly financed by the New York-based Alavi Foundation, the American branch of Iran's Bonyad-e Mostazafan (or the Foundation for the Oppressed). They also maintain ties to Islamic Centers in Springfield, Virginia and elsewhere in the Washington area.
Employees of the Interest Section frequently try to exert pressure on Iranian-Americans engaged in politics. One method frequently used is to detain relatives seeking visas or passport extensions for hours of questioning, only granting the service once the relative had agreed to "pass a message" onto his family member to desist from opposition politics. "They are only supposed to be performing consular services," said Khosrow Akmal, secretary general of the opposition Constitutionalists Movement of Iran, "but they have many other offices, including an Information section, which does intelligence work."
The Islamic Republic uses the same word - ettelaat - for information and intelligence.
Some U.S. government officials believe the Interest Section is also involved in laundering Iranian government funds to pro-Tehran individuals and groups operating in the U.S. "They are spending a lot of money on this," one official said. "Their primary goal is to get the U.S. sanctions lifted." (See "Pro-Tehran lobbying," below)
Since the 45 staff members of the Interest Section all hold green cards or U.S. passports, they can travel anywhere they choose in the United States, unlike Iranian diplomats accredited to the United Nations.
State Department officials said the size of the Interests Section in the U.S., as well as the number of diplomats the Islamic Republic is allowed to maintain at the UN, was negotiated as part of the Algiers agreement resolving the 1979-1981 hostage crisis in Tehran. "The United States does not issue visas through our Interests Section in Tehran and has no U.S. citizens there," one State Department officer said. "The situations are not reciprocal." However, the official said, the size of the Interests Section "is one of the things we are looking at," he added.
The current head of the Interest Section is Faramarz Fathnezhad. Born on Feb. 20, 1957, he began working for the Interest Section on Oct. 8, 1990, according to U S. government records. His younger brother, Mohsen Fathnezhad, was repatriated last summer after the Fairfax County Police issued an arrest warrant for him on charges of sexually assaulting a minor. A Wanted Poster with the younger Fathnezhad's picture was posted in Fairfax County public buildings.
The former head of the Interest Section, Ali Sabzalian, moved to New York in 1993 to launch the Center for Iranian Trade and Development, a private group that aimed to encourage American firms to invest in Iran. Since the U.S. trade embargo, they have virtually ceased their trade promotion activities and closed down their monthly magazine, Iran Business Monitor.
As of July 1995, the Interest Section had declared the following "staff" members: