US approves visas for Iranian leaders to attend UN meeting in New York
The Trump administration has approved visas for Iran’s president and foreign minister to attend next week’s U.N. General Assembly high-level meeting in New York. The decision comes even as the United States and Iran are locked in a war that has lasted more than six months, with no apparent progress on reopening the Strait of Hormuz or restarting nuclear talks.
The State Department said Thursday it had approved visas for Iran’s “core delegation” and essential staffers. U.S. officials, speaking anonymously because of visa privacy laws, said the core delegation includes President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
The core delegation will face travel restrictions in New York and be barred from purchasing luxury and other goods, the State Department said.
“Consistent with our host country obligations, the core delegation from the Iranian regime will be able to attend UN General Assembly High Level week,” the State Department said. “The delegation will be under travel restrictions and will face prohibitions on the purchase of luxury and other goods per our policy. The delegation is smaller than last year.”
The approval came a day after the State Department denied visas to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his delegation.
The department accused the Palestinian Authority of trying to “internationalize” the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza through cases at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, and of continuing to pay stipends to prisoners jailed in Israel for attacks on Israelis.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the visa denial and called Israel’s actions “the real threat to the two-state solution and prospects for peace.”
“Punitive measures and restrictions imposed on Palestinian officials do not contribute to advancing peace or combating violence,” the authority’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “Rather, they weaken the Palestinian partner committed to a political solution and encourage forces working to undermine the two-state solution and impose the reality of occupation, settlement and annexation by force.”
For last year’s U.N. gathering of world leaders, the State Department approved a limited number of visas for Iranian diplomats but imposed rigid restrictions, including limits on how far they could travel in New York City from their U.N. mission and a bar on shopping at wholesale membership stores such as Costco and Sam’s Club.
As host of the United Nations headquarters, the U.S. is generally limited in its ability to block foreign leaders from coming to the General Assembly. It has, however, denied visas to or discouraged applications from leaders involved in active conflicts with the United States.
The approval comes against a backdrop of heightened tensions beyond the Iran war. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have stepped up attacks on Saudi infrastructure and shipping in the Red Sea, helping drive a surge in global oil prices. Iran remains the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism according to the United States, which has imposed significant sanctions and launched a new campaign in recent weeks aimed at severing “critical financial lifelines.”
The U.N. General Assembly, along with various U.N. agencies and organizations, recognizes the Palestinian Authority as the government of a full U.N. member state. The United States does not.
