No Replacement for Iran’s Proposed UN Envoy, MP Insists
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An Iranian legislator urged the country’s foreign ministry to move ahead with its pick for the post of UN ambassador despite US objection, stressing that no other choice should replace Hamid Abutalebi.
The Islamic Republic has proposed Hamid Abutalebi as its newly-appointed ambassador to the United Nations. But the US, the UN headquarters host country, has opposed to his nomination.
On April 8, the US Senate voted to bar Abutalebi from the US and the White House said he will not be welcomed in the country, describing his nomination as “not viable”. The House of Representatives unanimously passed the same legislation on April 10.
And thereafter, US President Barack Obama approved the unusual legislation that had already been passed by the US Congress.
Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency on Thursday, member of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission Ebrahim Aqamohammadi stressed that the country’s foreign ministry should not succumb to the US obstructionism in this case.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has never approved of the language of force by any superpower,” the legislator explained, adding that Abutalbei must be the only Iranian ambassador to the United Nations.
Earlier on April 13, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham had announced that Tehran plans to file a lawsuit against the US for its decision to refuse a visa to Abutalebi.
“The US move to deny a visa to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s permanent representative and ambassador to the UN is in violation of the international laws and contrary to agreements signed between the UN and the US government,” she said at the time.
Under a 1947 law that established the headquarters of the United Nations in New York, the United States is obligated to issue visas to diplomats assigned there, even those it finds objectionable.