US may block Ahmadinejad visit to UN
Tuesday 09 August 2005, 1:53 Makka Time, 22:53 GMT
Despite an agreement to let officials of member states visit the UN
headquarters in New York, the United States may deny Iran's president a
visa to attend a UN meeting because of his possible role in the 1979
storming of the US embassy in Tehran, the State Department has said.
Concern that Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, might have been
linked to the hostage-taking at the embassy was central to judging his
application for a visa to attend a September gathering of heads of state
in New York, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said on Monday.
Ereli acknowledged that the United States has an agreement with the United
Nations to allow officials of member states to travel to its headquarters
on UN business.
" I will say that we are mindful of headquarters agreements'
responsibilities," he told reporters. "We also take very seriously
information that someone has been involved in hostage-taking of American
citizens in contravention of international law and international
practice."
The United States says Ahmadinejad was a leader in the student movement
behind the embassy takeover and is trying to determine whether he was
himself a hostage-taker, which he and those who took part deny.
UN chief spokesman Stephane Dujarric said last week that US authorities
were obliged to give the Iranian a travel visa under the UN-US agreement.
Castro and Arafat
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said on Sunday: "We
hope the Americans will not make such a big mistake. If the Americans
cannot host the UN guests, they do not deserve to have the UN headquarters
in their country."
US officials said no head of state had ever been denied a visa to attend
such a meeting.
Despite the US public posture over Ahmadinejad -- at a time when
Washington is also condemning Iran for its suspected nuclear weapons
programs -- one State Department official suggested the Iranian leader
would eventually get a visa.
"We might think long and hard about it, but these types of figures do
usually get their visas," he said, citing the example of Cuban President
Fidel Castro, who has been to the UN headquarters despite longtime hostile
relations with Washington.
Washington blocked late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from going to New
York more than a decade ago; but he was not representing a sovereign state
and so was not covered by the UN agreement, the official added.
Reuters
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/836CF5DF-9B3A-4CFE-9C6A-BD2DBC762B20.htm
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