We've met technical people, people on the street. It's a country where you can't help but get into all kinds of conversations and a great deal of fun. There have been no diplomatic relations between the two countries since April 1980, five months after militant students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. The coming of age of a new generation of Iranians with little memory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution has given hope for better relations in the future. Student demonstrations, which began in July to protest the closure of a reformist newspaper, led to the arrest of more than 1,000.
Conservative clerics have since organized rival demonstrations in Tehran and other cities.
In Isfahan, a group of Islamic vigilantes harassed tourists in town to view the eclipse, the official newspaper Iran reported Thursday. Reporter Shirzad Bozorgmehr and Reuters contributed to this report. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines .