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Iran: US denial of visa to envoy linked to hostage crisis “unacceptable”

Apr 13, 2014 8:02 pm By Robert Spencer

Aboutalebi“Unacceptable.” Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said: “The government of the United States is well aware that this kind of behavior is by no means acceptable for us.” That is the language of a master speaking to a servant. The Iranians know who’s boss. Barack Obama showed them by capitulating to their nuclear program. And they’re going to run with it as far as they can.

“US denial of visa to Iran UN envoy ‘unacceptable’: Tehran,” AFP, April 10 (thanks to Lookmann):

TEHRAN: Iran described as “unacceptable” on Wednesday a decision by the United States to deny a visa to Tehran’s newly appointed UN ambassador over his alleged links to the 1979 US hostage crisis.

The clash over the nomination threatens to complicate a key moment in the easing of relations between Washington and Tehran as both sides strive to conclude a deal on the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme.

On Tuesday, a day after the US Senate passed a resolution that would deny a visa to Hamid Aboutalebi, White House spokesman Jay Carney said his selection was “not viable.”

Iran had already defended Aboutalebi’s appointment, brushing aside US concerns, and did so again on Wednesday.

Speaking to Iranian media in Vienna, where the latest round of nuclear talks is underway, foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said “we announced to the Americans one of our most rational and experienced diplomats as our United Nations envoy.”

“The government of the United States is well aware that this kind of behavior is by no means acceptable for us,” added Zarif, himself a former UN envoy.

Seen as close to the reformists and an ally of President Hassan Rouhani, Aboutalebi is currently the director general of political affairs bureau of the president’s office.

He has previously served as ambassador to the European Union, Belgium, Italy and Australia.

Aboutalebi has insisted he was not part of the hostage-taking in November 1979, when students seized the US embassy after the overthrow of the pro-Western shah.

He has said he worked as a translator when the students, soon after the hostage-taking, released 13 women and African Americans to highlight what they said was Islamic respect for women and poor US treatment of minorities.

The remaining 52 diplomats spent a total of 444 days in captivity, enraging the United States.

As the host government, the United States generally is obliged to issue visas to diplomats who serve at UN headquarters.

But state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday that there were “limited exceptions.”

They included “security, terrorism and foreign policy concerns. So there are a broad range of broadly speaking reasons that a visa could be deemed ineligible,” Psaki told reporters.

She refused to discuss the specifics of Aboutalebi’s case however, and whether he had submitted a visa request or not, citing privacy concerns.

Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas and vociferous critic of Iran, introduced the Senate resolution backed by fellow lawmakers that blocks US visas for “known terrorists” to represent their countries at the United Nations.

In his remarks Wednesday, Zarif referred to what he called a “group of extremists (that) must not be allowed to determine the agenda of Iran’s presence in the United Nations.”

The US and Iran still do not have diplomatic relations, but Rouhani and US President Barack Obama have taken steps to ease tensions through a tentative agreement to freeze parts of Iran’s nuclear programme.

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Filed Under: Iran, United Nations Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. Angemon says

    Apr 13, 2014 at 8:14 pm

    Since when shi’ia stopped using taqqyia? Oh yeah, since they can feel their hands on the nuclear bomb.

    • Jay Boo says

      Apr 13, 2014 at 9:32 pm

      But isn’t Rouhani a moderate Muslim
      just like Obama’s supposed New & Improved MB

      Not according to his own son who committed suicide.
      (NY Post & also at Front Page Magazine)
      http://nypost.com/2013/06/20/damning-suicide-note-to-irans-new-prez/

  2. miriam rove says

    Apr 13, 2014 at 8:16 pm

    too bad.m

  3. JOHN SPIELMAN says

    Apr 13, 2014 at 8:19 pm

    iran knows that this evildoer Aboutalebi was involved in hostage taking and is just poking their collective shiite covered finger in Obama’s eye

  4. mortimer says

    Apr 13, 2014 at 9:09 pm

    He could start by apologizing.

  5. veggiedog says

    Apr 13, 2014 at 9:14 pm

    Screw the bastards

  6. Jay Boo says

    Apr 13, 2014 at 9:21 pm

    Grant him a visa then arrest him for being Muslim

    “Unacceptable.”
    Convert from Islam jailed for ten years for Christian activities in Iran
    http://barnabasfund.org/US/News-analysis/Convert-from-Islam-jailed-for-ten-years-for-Christian-activities-in-Iran.html

  7. Saleem Smith says

    Apr 13, 2014 at 9:25 pm

    The Iranian mullahs and their fellow Mohammedan henchmen have the Quran and Muhammad the murderous mad prophet of Islam’s Sunnah as their guiding light and instruction manual.

    Therefore only darkness can prevail.

    Islam has destroyed what could have been a great nation. If Zoroastrianism still ruled Persia, Persians would still be happy and proud of their heritage and want to live in Iran. Instead they curse the day that Islam arrived and want out.

    • Jay Boo says

      Apr 13, 2014 at 9:34 pm

      It seems Iranians have a tiger by the tail syndrome.
      They hate the tiger but they don’t dare let go.

  8. Notta_allah_followa says

    Apr 14, 2014 at 2:41 am

    I hope someone sees this for the nuclear -related stall tactic this is. The Iranians were surely aware that we would object to such an obviously unqualified nominee but while we are now paying attention to this latest issue, the centrifuges continue to spin in Iran. God, I hope Israel realizes that with Obama in office, they are truly on their own. They will have to act unilaterally and quickly and can no longer depend on this once-great nation to defend their gates against the encroaching savage hordes.

  9. veggiedog says

    Apr 14, 2014 at 8:34 am

    If the US lets him in and falls for this taqqyia than shame on us. We are almost as lost as the UK, I hope we can be saved.

  10. Mark says

    Apr 14, 2014 at 1:39 pm

    There are half-a-dozen comments on the Indian web site blaming…wait for it…the EEEVIL JOOOOOS for the visa denial. Does a heart good to learn how incredibly powerful we are!

  11. veggiedog says

    Apr 14, 2014 at 2:21 pm

    Well if it was/is denied because of the evil Jews I am proud to be one of them. Yes we may one day be gone (look at KC yesterday and the jihad against Israel, France and the rest of Europe) but I am proud to be one who sees what Islam is about and what Iran is about.

  12. Change Iran Now says

    Apr 15, 2014 at 8:55 pm

    If Iran will not abandon something as minor as their proposed U.N. delegate, why in the world would we expect them to abandon something as consequential as their nuclear program? Our foreign affairs are being conducted as if others really think and act the way liberal naiveté would have them do in their unworkable perfect world.

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