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Iran's UN envoy pick stirs painful US memories

Tehran professor and political analyst Sadegh Zibakalam has said that Iran’s nominee for UN envoy stirs memories as painful for Americans as the 1953 coup does for Iranians, but that the issue should not be allowed to derail the nuclear talks.
Les monarchistes et l'Armée iranienne fraternisent le 27 août 1953 à Téhéran après la réussite du coup d'Etat. Le Shah d'Iran est rentré d'Italie le 22 août, où il était en exil, après la réussite du coup d'Etat pour restaurer la monarchie.        (Photo credit should read /AFP/Getty Images)

A Tehran University professor and political analyst has said that Iran’s new United Nations envoy nominee Hamid Aboutalebi stirs painful memories for Americans. In his op-ed for Reformist newspaper Shargh Daily, Sadegh Zibakalam also urged both the United States and Iran to quietly step back from this crisis so that critics of the nuclear deal on both sides do not use it as an excuse to destroy the deal.

“Regardless of what role Hamid Aboutalebi had or did not have in occupation of the embassy and in the taking of the hostages, the whole situation … is as painful for the Americans as the tragedy of the 1953 coup is for the Iranians,” wrote Zibakalam.

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