The arrival of U.S. rescue teams, and the Bush administration's move to help relief work by relaxing economic sanctions, represent a rare conciliatory moment in the 24-year-old feud between the United States and Iran.

It is unclear that the conciliation can lead to any lasting change in relations, which ruptured following Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution and the seizure by radical students of U.S. diplomats as hostages. Still, the brother of Iranian President [Muhammad Reza Khatami] said yesterday that some reciprocal Iranian gesture might emerge.

As much of the city lies eerily quiet, a battered Revolutionary Guard compound has become a bustling camp of rescue and relief workers. As the first official U.S. delegation to set foot in Iran in more than a decade, the 83 American doctors, engineers and relief experts here were the object of considerable interest, representing a possible bridge between two governments that have not had diplomatic relations since 1979.