Iran seeks visitors, U.S. says bad idea

At the top of the agenda of Iran’s new president, Hasan Rouhani, is fixing the country’s crumbling economy, and promoting international tourism is part of his solution.

Rouhani wants the number of foreign visitors to more than double, to 10 million from 4 million, each year, according to a July report in The Washington Post. Such an increase, The Post reported Rouhani as saying, would “create jobs for 4 million people, solving the problem of 3.5 million unemployed people in this country.”

Rouhani, a moderate cleric, has indicated that he is open to working with the outside world to lift the international economic restrictions connected to Iran’s nuclear program. The Iranian parliament’s recent confirmation of a U.S.-educated diplomat as foreign minister suggested that Rouhani was moving forward in his campaign promise to engage with the United States.

The shift has led the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, an educational organization, to resume tours to Iran, starting with a trip in April 2014. The organization had suspended such tours in 2011 after tensions between Iran and the United States escalated over the imprisonment of three U.S. hikers who had been detained for two years on espionage charges, but who were released later that year.

The renewed interest in Iran among Americans, however, is not shared by the U.S. State Department. When recently contacted by email, the department noted its travel warning for Iran, which it updated May 24. “Since 2009, Iranian authorities have prevented the departure, in some cases for several months, of a number of Iranian-American citizens,” the warning read. “Iranian authorities also have unjustly detained or imprisoned U.S. citizens on various charges, including espionage and posing a threat to national security.”

The U.S. government has not had diplomatic or consular relations with Iran since the hostage crisis, which began in 1979 and lasted for 14 months. The warning stated that the United States could not provide protection or routine consular services to its citizens (the Swiss government serves as protecting power for U.S. interests in Iran).