Just as Iran and the United States seem to be emerging from a diplomatic freeze that started with the 1979 hostage crisis at the American embassy in Tehran, Iran has appointed a new ambassador with links to that very incident.



Hamid Aboutalebi has served as an Iranian diplomat in posts across Europe and Australia over the last several years. It wasn't until he applied for an American visa to begin his new role as Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations did his place in the organization that seized the American embassy in 1979 first garner notice. The infamous stand-off, in which 52 American hostages were held captive, lasted for 444 days.

For his part, Aboutalebi doesn't deny his membership in the group Muslim Students Following the Imam’s Line that took over the embassy, but he downplays his involvement in actual capture of the building.