Iran rejects US ban for UN envoy, vows action

Iran on Saturday rejected a US decision to deny a visa for its newly appointed ambassador to the United Nations, pledging to take up the case directly with the world body in a dispute that has reopened old wounds dating to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran on Saturday rejected a US decision to deny a visa for its newly appointed ambassador to the United Nations, pledging to take up the case directly with the world body in a dispute that has reopened old wounds dating to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.


The United States, which hosts the United Nations, said Iran’s candidate Hamid Abutalebi was unacceptable given his role in a 444-day crisis in which radical Iranian students stormed the US embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage.

President Barack Obama had come under strong domestic pressure not to allow Abutalebi into the US to take up his position, raising concerns that the dispute would disrupt negotiations between Tehran and six world powers including Washington over Iran’s nuclear programme. “Based on an agreement with the UN, America is bound to act according to its international commitments,” an Iranian official said.