Iran-US ties were cut after the dramatic hostage taking of 54 American diplomats by Iranian revolutionaries on November 1979, leading to economic sanctions imposed by Washington against sensitive trade, especially on oil, with the Islamic Republic, an embargo that has badly harmed the regime’s economy.

An Iranian delegation, let by the Speaker of the Majles (parliament), Hojjatoleslam Mehdi Karrubi that includes the only representative of the Iranian 25.000 to 30.000 Jewish community and a female legislator was in New York to attend the Inter-parliamentary Union.

Iranian sources said the inclusion of Mr. Maurice Motamed and Mrs. Fatemeh Kula’i was aimed at preventing the influential US Jewish groups, Iranian dissidents and human rights organisations to demonstrate against the Iranian delegation in the one hand and to ward off criticism addressed to the Iranian authorities of their ill treatment of minorities but particularly women by the Islamic Republic.

Sources at the reception told Iran Press Service that discussions ranged from Iran-US relations to the imprisonment of Iranian Jews to American sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

He said Iranian people had deep respect for American people and Majles was ready to fulfil it’s part of consolidating and developing people to people ties, but on the other hand, it observes that problems are being created by the US Congress and government".

The MP for the Iranian Jews in the 290-seat Majles hoped the prisoners would receive a "lighter" sentence when their appeals are heard in few days time.

He also said some Congressmen have expressed their desire to visit Iran and were told that they could come once Iranian authorities would give the green light.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said the meeting was just "one step removed" from official government-to-government contacts. "What we’re looking for here is to break the ice," Specter said in a statement.

"So if you take what President Khatami has been saying, I think the time is right to start a dialogue". Both he and Ney said they hoped the informal gathering would be followed by a planned exchange of lawmakers, in form of an invitation extended to the Iranians in letters from House and Senate members several months ago.

The two U.S. lawmakers were joined by Reps. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Gary Ackerman, a Jewish D-N.Y., at the reception thrown the AIC, an Iranian-led group lobbying for improved relations between the two countries, in the Museum that is chaired by prominent Jewish personalities.

The "charm offensive" was launched at precisely the same time that inside Iran, conservatives, led by the leader, are waging a mass crackdown on reformists who, among other reforms, favour establishing a dialogue, if not resuming relations with the United States, a demand that is strongly opposed by Mr. Khameneh'i.

"After grabbing the flag of reforms from the embattled and powerless President and making it a brand of his own menu under the name of Islamic reforms versus of American one, now Mr. Khameneh'i is also taking away the initiatives for dialogue between American and Iranian peoples, as stated by Mr. Karrubi", one Iranian political analyst pointed out.

The Berlin meeting led to the "bundle closure" of all but a few reformist publications and imprisonment of the 17 journalists, scholars and intellectuals who attended the venue, accused of conspiring against national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic.

Mr Khameneh'i has not neglected the religious front either, since he has another official delegation led by Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli, representing him at the  UN-sponsored "World Peace in the Third Millennium" Conference that has brought together hundreds religious from all over the world.

While Mr. Karrubi is busy meeting political personalities, the hard line cleric met representatives from American Muslim communities in mosuqes and religious centres in New York, playing Mr. Khameneh'is favourite tunes, describing "world arrogance", or the West, as the "main obstacle to world peace".