Iran FM Mohammad Zarif reportedly denied visa to attend UN Security Council meeting

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The United States has reportedly denied Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif a visa for an upcoming United Nations Security Council meeting on Thursday.

According to local US and Iranian media, Zarif was denied a visa amid ongoing tensions between the US and Iran following the killing of Iranian general Qasim Soleimani last week.

According to the 1947 UN “headquarters agreement,” the US is obligated to allow foreign diplomats entry to the UN. However, the American government has said it can deny visas for “security, terrorism, and foreign policy” reasons, Al Jazeera reported on Tuesday.

There has been no official comment from the US or the UN regarding the alleged visa refusal.

The US government sanctioned the Iranian diplomat in August for implementing the “reckless agenda” of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Related Article: US sanctions Iranian Foreign Minister

Al Jazeera reported then that part of the sanctions could be a possible visa refusal to attend the UN.

However, the Iranian traveled to New York in September for the annual gathering of world leaders at the UN.

The developments come following a US drone strike last week on a convoy near the Baghdad airport killed Soleimani, long-time head of the Quds Force, the paramilitary arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the head of the Iranian-backed Shia militia, Kata’ib Hizbollah, which was responsible for killing a US contractor on Dec. 27 in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base near Kirkuk.

Read More: US strike kills Qasim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis

Iran has vowed to respond to the attack and declared on Sunday that it would no longer abide by a 2015 nuclear accord it signed with world powers.