State Department Creates New Office to Promote Iranian Democracy

The Foundation for Democracy in Iran reports and CNN confirms that the State Department has created a special office to promote democracy in Iran, unnamed State Department officials said today. The new Office of Iran Affairs will have staff in NESA and in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL).

In addition, Secretary Rice has announced she will set up an new regional office in Dubai to deal with Iran and Iranians, and will assign officers to handle Iranian affairs in Azerbaijan, Germany, and Britain. "Certainly this signals the fact that we believe that Iran and Iranian behavior is one of the greatest foreign policy priorities we will be dealing with over the next decade," a State Department official said.

The Center for American Progress were quick to criticize the new move as counter-productive, noting that current conditions in Iran make "it likely that the administration's new strategy will backfire and only strengthen Tehran's hard-liners."