US refuses Iran top diplomat’s request to visit Washington
- Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian reportedly wanted to visit Iran’s consular interest section following the UN General Assembly in New York
- The State Department said that given Iran’s wrongful detention of US citizens, it did not believe it was appropriate to grant the request
The United States said on Monday it refused a request by Iran’s foreign minister to visit Washington last week, pointing to concerns about Tehran’s record including past detentions of US citizens.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian reportedly sought to travel to visit Iran’s consular interest section following the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
“They did make that request and it was denied by the State Department,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
“We do have an obligation to allow Iranian officials and other officials of foreign governments to travel to New York for UN business. But we do not have an obligation to allow them to travel to Washington, DC,” he said.
“Given Iran’s wrongful detention of US citizens, given Iran’s state sponsorship of terrorism, we did not believe it was either appropriate or necessary in this instance to grant that request.”
Iran last week allowed five US citizens to leave in a prisoner swap in which the United States also arranged the transfer of US$6 billion in frozen Iranian funds from South Korea to an account in Qatar.