A diplomatic squabble has broken out over a nominee to Iran's UN mission following claims by former U.S. embassy workers that he was involved in the 1979-81 hostage crisis. The brouhaha around Hamid Abutalebi's appointment shows that U.S.-Iran relations remain vulnerable to upsets, despite the recent warming marked by the interim nuclear agreement.

On November 4, 1979, students inspired by the Islamic revolution broke into the U.S. embassy in Tehran to protest against Jimmy Carter granting a visa to Iran's exiled Shah Reza Pahlavi. The students believed, wrongly as it turned out, that the U.S. intended to reinstall Pahlavi as Shah. They held 52 U.S. embassy workers for 444 days, until January 19, 1981.

The passage of time has not dimmed bitter memories, and the hostage crisis is still negatively affecting U.S.-Iran relations. The Abutalebi issue is just the latest. In 2005, shortly after Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was elected president of Iran, there were reports in the U.S. media that Ahmedinejad had been involved in kidnapping American hostages. A picture showing someone who resembled Ahmedinejad standing behind the hostages was widely carried in the U.S. media. Though the Iranian government insisted it was not Ahmedinejad, the story had a sensational impact in the US.

On March 23, 2007, Iran seized 15 British sailors, believing that they had encroached into Iran's territorial waters. This issue was of totally different nature to the 1979 hostage crisis. But the U.S. and Western media almost unanimously treated the two incidents as equivalent. An article in Los Angeles Times entitled "Get tough on Iran" accused the Iranians of using "hostage-taking as a tool of statecraft."

In 2012, the Hollywood movie "Argo" told the story of how a heroic CIA agent saved six U.S. embassy workers who had taken refuge in the Canadian mission during the hostage crisis. The movie stirred up old memories in America, which may help explain why it won three Oscars, and why first lady Michelle Obama personally awarded the best picture award to its star and director, Ben Affleck.

Now, in 2014, former U.S. embassy workers are resisting Iran's nomination of Hamid Abutalebi as a representative to the UN. Hamid Abutalebi is a veteran diplomat who has served in several European countries and is widely regarded as a moderate. He has explained that his involvement in the hostage crisis was as a translator only. Despite this, some former hostages are still calling on the Obama administration to reject his application for a diplomatic visa.

It is true that the opposition of these former hostages does not necessarily reflect the position of the U.S. government. And, in fact, the U.S. government does not have the right to reject visa applications of diplomats to the UN, an inter-governmental organization that just happens to be located on U.S. soil. But this latest issue, taken together with the others mentioned above, does suggest something.

When Iran and the group of six signed an interim nuclear agreement on November 24, 2013, observers and analysts believed that it would eventually lead to the normalization of relations between the United States and Iran. The anger and the concern of Israel and Saudi Arabia, Iran's regional rivals, reflected these expectations. Many commentators even believed that U.S. willingness to compromise indicated that Washington might include Iran in its regional strategy.

But the furor around Abutalebi's nomination has once again demonstrated that the United States is not yet psychologically prepared to accept Iran as a normal player, at least at the people-to-people level, even if Barack Obama's government truly wants to improve relations. And without the support of the public, the White House cannot easily reverse course on Iran. From this point of view, even when a breakthrough is available, relations between the two sides will remain limited and low level.

It is unreasonable to expect the U.S. to forget the hostage crisis. The images of blindfolded hostages are imprinted in the minds of Americans of that generation. But scholars and politicians should explain to the American public that though the fault lies on the Iranian side, the crisis was actually the outcome of complicated interactions between the two countries in previous decades. Iranians regarded the U.S. as a backer of the cruel and oppressive regime of the Shah, and particularly resented the bitter experience of Operation Ajax – the CIA-backed overthrow of the elected Mosaddegh government in 1953.

Improving relations between the two sides depends not only on the decisions of the governments but also on developing mutual understanding between the two peoples.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://china.org.cn/opinion/jinliangxiang.htm

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