Iran has turned part of the "Den of Spies" - the former US embassy in Tehran - into an exhibit to publicly display memorabilia connected with the takeover of the building by Iranian revolutionaries on November 4, 1979, according to the official Iranian news agency, IRNA, citing a local news report.
The English-language Tehran Times said Sunday that the exhibit would be open to "foreign and Iranian visitors" as of November 4 and was intended to showcase "public tools and apparatus used by the American personnel for espionage purposes."
The building has been used as a military headquarters by the Iranian government since Washington severed ties with Tehran in 1979.
The break in ties followed the seizure of the embassy by students following the Islamist line of Imam Khomeini, who promoted the toppling of the US-backed dictator, the Shah of Iran, and his brutal secret police, SAVAK.
Fifty-two of the embassy's staff were held captive for 444 days.
Since the election of President Mohammad Khatami in 1997, ties frozen for almost two decades have considerably improved, with the two countries exchanging a number of cultural delegations and attending sports events.
Washington last year lifted a ban on imports of Iranian pistachios, caviar and carpets, which were banned from importation because of unilateral sanctions imposed by the US government on Tehran.
The US government in August extended other sanctions for another five years, much to the dismay of American oil companies, which have slammed them for depriving the firms of the opportunity to make lucrative investments in Iranian oil and gas development projects.
The sanctions, imposed under the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, first came into force in 1996 and punish any firm that invests more than $20 million in the energy sector of either country.
European and Asian oil companies have defied the sanctions by entering into dozens of oil and gas deals worth billions of dollars with the Islamic republic, and are reportedly set to enter into more – Albawaba.com
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