Iranian Diplomat’s UN Visit Stirs US Angst After Israel Attack

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian

(Bloomberg) — Iran’s attack on Israel over the weekend is complicating plans by the Islamic Republic’s foreign minister to visit New York for a United Nations session on Thursday.

Hossein Amirabdollahian would generally be entitled to a visa under the US’s agreement to host the UN headquarters. But a Republican lawmaker urged the State Department to bar him, and the department’s spokesman made it clear that Amirabdollahian will receive a grudging welcome.

“Given his ties to terrorism against Israel and US forces, Amirabdollahian should not be welcome in this country,” Republican Senator James Lankford wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken Monday. Lankford accused Amirabdollahian of ties to Hamas, adding that “Iran’s irresponsible strikes and continued threats have jeopardized Israel’s security.”

Amirabdollahian is set to attend a Security Council meeting where members are expected to vote on whether Palestine should be made a full-fledged member of the UN. The Palestinian Authority is reviving a bid that was originally turned down in 2011, and the US is almost certain to exercise its veto as a permanent member of the council even if the proposal gets enough support from other nations.

Foreign ministers from multiple Muslim countries are expected in New York in an effort to keep the momentum for the Palestinian cause going despite Israel’s continuing war in Gaza with Hamas militants, which are backed by Iran.

A spokesman for Iran’s mission to the UN confirmed Amirabdollahian’s planned visit while declining to comment on Lankford’s criticism. The spokesman said the mission hasn’t been informed of any new restrictions beyond those already imposed on Iranian delegates. They aren’t allowed to travel more than 25 miles (40 kilometers) away from UN headquarters in midtown Manhattan.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US takes its obligations seriously as host of the United Nations, and that includes allowing diplomats from other countries — including US adversaries — to attend UN meetings.

“We do have the ability to restrict — in fact, severely restrict — the movements of certain diplomats while they’re in New York for legitimate UN meetings,” Miller said. “I would not expect to see him, for example, snapping selfies on top of the Empire State Building should he travel to New York to attend this meeting.”

This will be Amirabdollahian’s first trip to New York since Israel’s strike on an Iranian consular facility in Syria set off a new wave of tensions between Iran and Israel. Over the weekend, the US, UK and other nations’ forces helped Israel intercept almost all of more than 300 missiles and armed drones fired from Iran.

Despite the US agreement to provide diplomats access to the UN, the Trump administration blocked Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister at the time, from entering the US in 2020 to address the Security Council about the US killing of Iran’s top military commander Qassem Soleimani.

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