Thirty years ago this month, Iranian student revolutionaries climbed over the walls of the US Embassy in Tehran and seized 52 Americans, whom they ultimately held hostage for 444 days. The hostage crisis, coming in the aftermath of Iran's Islamic revolution, ended diplomatic relations between Washington and Tehran - a rift that persists to this day.

In his assessment of the Iranian political scene, then Ambassador Laingen wrote as follows: "Perhaps the single dominant aspect of the Persian psyche is an overriding egoism. Its antecedents lie in the long Iranian history of instability and insecurity which put a premium on self-preservation. The practical effect of it is an almost total Persian preoccupation with self and leaves little room for understanding points of view other than one's own."

Other than 9/11, this event has shaped and continues to shape US Foreign Policy. Diplomatic bungling by the Carter Administration, coupled with a rescue attempt which failed disastrously much to the embarrassment of the US government and even more so of the US military, exacerbated the situation and prolonged the stand-off. It cost the incumbent President Carter any chance of a second term in the White House, and certainly paved the way for the two-term Presidency of Ronald Reagan. Ironically, the hostage saga also has a Maltese connection. L. Bruce Laingen, the Chargé d'Affaires who was one of the hostages, had been US Ambassador to Malta from 1977 until he was posted to Tehran in mid-1979. During his time in captivity, Ambassador Laingen was able to exchange letters with my then 16-year-old son John, who had been a schoolmate and friend of the Ambassador's sons.

The Ayatollahs allowed their captives that much, at least.