Baku, Azerbaijan, April 9
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
A senior Iranian official says that the U.S. approach towards the Islamic republic's pick for United Nations envoy is unacceptable.
"Hamid Abutalebi, is the Islamic Republic's choice to represent us in the United Nations," the spokeswoman of the Iranian foreign ministry, Marzieh Affkham said, the country's Tasnim news agency reported.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said on April 8 that "We've informed the government of Iran that this potential selection is not viable."
The U.S. Senate approved a bill on April 7 to bar Aboutalebi from entering the United States.
Aboutalebi is accused of having ties with the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States. Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days (Nov. 4, 1979-Jan. 20, 1981), after a group of Iranian students supporting the Iranian Revolution took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
Commenting on the Senate's bill Afkham said that Tehran will follow the case through diplomatic channels, adding, "Any official response from the official channels will be the criterion for our subsequent decision and measure."
Afkham went on to say that Aboutalebi had once been granted a U.S. visa to go to the United Nations in the 1990s.
The spokeswoman further underlined that Aboutalebi is one of the Iran's best diplomats who already served in various diplomatic missions in Italy, Belgium and Australia.
Edited by C.N.