It isn't April 1st although when I first read the headline that the U.S. Department of State has opened an embassy in Iran (albeit one that is accessed solely through the Internet) I had major doubts whether this was a massive hoax.
More than three decades after the hostage crisis that brought the end of diplomatic relations between Iran and the US, and just a few days after news outlets reported that pro-hard liner crowds had stormed the British Embassy in Tehran, the web-based "embassy" went online today with versions in English and Farsi explaining why the administration has chosen this method of reaching out to the Iranian people. In a video message posted to the sites, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the lack of diplomatic relations had hindered dialogue between the U.S. and Iranian citizens.
Clinton said the online embassy was an effort to use new technology to bridge those gaps and promote greater understanding between the two countries.
Iranian vsa applicants will still have to go to neighbouring Abu Dhabi and Ankara to apply for visas but the web based embassy will purportedly serve to answer their questions and avail them of forms. This is strange because forms and information are already available online at the US consulate webpages of those neighboring countries. And of course the Iranian government can block access to any website it deems anti-Islamic. So I am not sure of the purose of opening a web based embassy other than a symbolic, political one at this point.
The new U.S. virtual embassy website can be viewed in English iran.usembassy.gov and in Persian at persian.iran.usembassy.gov although I think so many people are crashing the site that you will have a hard time getting through. Good luck!
