Iranian diplomat Ali Nasimfar said in the session that that none of the members of his delegation, who had applied well in advance, had been issued visas by the host country in time to attend the meeting.
In addition, members of the delegation were being confined to three buildings in New York. Such actions were a systematic attempt to silence his Mission, he said, adding that the seat of the United Nations Headquarters is being used as political leverage, reported the United Nations website.
This is the United Nations, Nasimfar stressed, not “the united of powerful or the united of privileges”, calling on the host country to withdraw these illegal measures that are not in compliance with the Headquarters Agreement. Just last week, the United States Consulate rejected a visa request to two members of an Iranian delegate’s household. If the host country is unable to perform its duty, Member States should hold the United Nations meetings elsewhere, he said.
Russia’s representative Gennady V. Kuzmin, along with other delegations, echoed those concerns regarding the recent actions by the host country, saying that by unilaterally introducing visa restrictions, the host country has abrogated to itself the right to decide who is or is not a member of a national delegation.
Following the debate, the Sixth Committee (Legal) in two brief organizational meetings was unable to adopt its programme of work for the seventy‑fourth session, resulting in the Chair adjourning the meeting to the following day.
Also in his daily briefing on Monday, Spokesman for the Secretary-General Stéphane Dujarric said that the visa policy of the United States “is concerning us and I know we have been raising it with the host authorities at various levels on a repeated basis.”
Washington delayed the visa issuance for the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani last month and has not given visas for Iranian delegations set to attend UN committees in New York. US administration has also imposed limitations on the movements of Iranian diplomats and their families in New York, limiting them to just three buildings.
MNA/PR/ 4740341
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