A 1979 British television report on the hostage crisis at the United States Embassy in Tehran includes footage of an English-speaking spokeswoman for the group, Massoumeh Ebtekar, who is now one of Iran’s vice presidents and the minister for the environment, The New York Times reported.
There has been discomfort and anger in Washington since Iran applied for a visa to let a veteran diplomat who played a part in the 1979 hostage crisis move to New York and serve as its ambassador to the United Nations.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran, have actively promoted the idea that Aboutalebi was a leader of the hostage-takers.
The same exile group — whose main affiliate, the Mujahedeen e-Khalq, or People’s Mujahedeen, was removed from the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations in 2012 after a Washington lobbying campaign — upped the ante further on Thursday, saying that Aboutalebi had “coordinated” the assassination of one of its members in Rome in1993.