January 10, 2020
The US won’t issue Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif a visa to travel to the United Nations this month, contending there was not enough time to process the request.
Zarif told “CBS This Morning” January 7 that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo informed the UN secretary general, who in turn relayed to Zarif, that “they didn’t have time to review my request.”
A US official confirmed to the Associated Press that same day that the application couldn’t be processed in time.
It’s not clear that Zarif’s request has been formally rejected, however, which would trigger legal technicalities that could affect future visa applications. The State Department cited visa confidentiality laws that bar the release of such information with certain limited exceptions.
However, national security adviser Robert O’Brien told “Fox & Friends,” “I don’t think Secretary Pompeo thought that this was the right time for Mr. Zarif to come to the United States.” That was quite different from the explanation of lack of time—which was a very flimsy explanation.
Zarif said, “This is because they fear someone will go there and tell the truth to the American people. But they are mistaken. The world is not limited to New York. You can speak with American people from Tehran too and we will do that.” And, indeed, Zarif gave an interview that same day in Tehran to ABC News.
Zarif had applied for the visa in order to speak to a UN Security Council session January 9 about the importance of upholding the UN charter.
“Whenever he comes to New York, he spreads propaganda,” O’Brien said. “I actually find it somewhat ironic that Mr. Zarif wants to take advantage of the diplomatic niceties of being able to come to New York and come to the UN when his revolution was born in the taking of 52 American diplomats hostage in Iran and holding them for 444 days…. He can certainly call in to the meeting or he can participate by video teleconference and his voice will be heard if he wants to be heard.”
Some people speculated that State Department security officials opposed the visit because they felt they would be overwhelmed by the security requirements and feared an attack on Zarif.
Under its obligations as the host country of the UN headquarters, the US is required in most circumstances to issue visas to foreign officials for meetings at the world body. However, there are exceptions and the US has restricted the movements of Iranian diplomats in New York. It has also moved to bar non-UN-related travel by other foreign officials, notably the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
In the interview with ABC, Zarif said:
“The United States committed three great mistakes, and they will pay for all three mistakes.
“The first mistake was they violated the Iraqi sovereignty and territorial integrity, and because of that they received a response from the Iraqis—they canceled their agreement, which the United States had already violated by not informing the Iraqis.” Zarif was presumably referring to the Iraqi Parliament’s weekend vote to kick foreign forces out of the country. But that was a non-binding vote.
”Second,” Zarif said, “they had the emotions of a large number of people from India to Russia, not to mention Iran, Iraq. The popular reaction to that I think will be the end of US presence in this region, and that would be a very high price to pay for the adventurism of a couple people.
“Third, they killed and claimed responsibility for murdering in a terrorist operation one of our highest ranking generals in a foreign territory. The government of Iran is responsible for protecting the lives of its citizens and its officials, and so it’s obvious that we will respond.”
Soleymani was designated as a “terrorist” by the Obama Administration in 2011 for his organizing the killing of American troops in Iraq.