Rice rules out diplomatic office in Iran

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday a decision on opening a diplomatic outpost in Iran would be left up to the incoming Obama administration and was not imminent.

"At this late moment, I think it is probably better that this decision be left to the next administration," said Rice when asked whether there was still a chance a U.S. interests section could be opened in Tehran before the end of the Bush administration.

She said there had been a decision "in principle" taken by President George W. Bush to open up a diplomatic office in Iran similar to one in the Cuban capital Havana, but that the timing had not been right.

"The point at which we most likely would have done it, we were right in the middle of the Georgia-Russia conflict," said Rice, referring to the brief war between Russia and Georgia in mid-August.

"We were actually doing the work that would be needed to do, to see how it could be implemented and what it could do," she added.

She said within the context of U.S. policy toward Iran, it was important to reach out to the Iranian people and have "eyes on the ground."

Having an interest section would stop well short of full diplomatic relations but involve sending U.S. diplomats to Tehran for the first time in 30 years.

The United States cut off diplomatic ties with Tehran during the 1979-1981 hostage crisis, in which a group of militant Iranian students held 52 U.S. diplomats hostage at the American embassy for 444 days.