The United States said Friday it would not grant a visa to Iran’s newly appointed UN ambassador, who has been linked to the 1979 hostage crisis, threatening to cloud a gradual thaw in relations.
Iran has insisted Washington’s objection to Aboutalebi is unacceptable and the row threatens to cloud a gradual thaw in relations between the two enemies after decades of mistrust.
As the host government of the United Nations, the United States generally is obliged to issue visas to diplomats who serve at the United Nations, although there have been rare exceptions.
Fierce political pressure from Congress, which has overwhelmingly passed a bill barring Aboutalebi from US soil, has put the White House in a corner.
“We have informed the United Nations and Iran that we will not issue a visa for Mr Aboutalebi,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
Carney said White House lawyers were studying constitutional issues raised by the bill which landed on President Barack Obama’s desk yesterday, and did not say whether he would eventually sign it.
But he added, “We certainly share the intent of the bill passed by Congress.”
Carney said that there was no reason to expect that the row between Tehran and Washington over the envoy would impact progress in talks between Iran and world powers, including the United States, over Tehran’s nuclear program.
But the episode reflects the enduring symbolic impact of the hostage crisis, in which 52 Americans were held for 444 days in Tehran, on US perceptions of the Islamic Republic, and the challenge it poses to Obama’s drive for a diplomatic breakthrough.
Neither Carney nor the State Department directly put down the decision not to give Aboutalebi a visa down to suspicions over his role in 1979, but noted widespread media reports on his background.
Iran had slammed as unacceptable a previous US statement that the nomination of Aboutalebi was “not viable”.
While the situation appears to be heading to a stalemate, a senior State Department official did note that Iran still has time to withdraw the nomination.