WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th January, 2020) Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is being denied a US visa he had requested to enter the United States to participate in a Security Council meeting this week, the Foreign Policy reports.
A Washington-based diplomatic source told the publication on Monday that a Trump administration official phoned UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday to tell him that the United States would not allow Zarif into the country.
Earlier, a diplomatic source told Sputnik that Iran's mission to the United Nations had not received any official communication regarding the state of Zarif's visa to enter the United States.
Zarif had planned to come to New York to address the Security Council on January 9 on the killing of Iranian top commander Qasem Soleimani.
Last week, US President Donald Trump ordered the assassination of Iranian Quds Force Commander Major General Qasem Soleimani citing evidence of plotting against American interests. However, after confidential briefings, several US lawmakers have expressed skepticism that the general posed an imminent threat.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei have pledged that Soleimani's death would not go unavenged, in response to what they consider a US crime.
Trump has tweeted that the United States would strike over 50 Iranian targets, including high-level and cultural sites, if Iran retaliates for Soleimani's death.
Tehran announced on Sunday that it would no longer abide by the uranium enrichment limitations agreed upon as part of the 2015 nuclear deal with France, Russia, China, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018.
