Associated Press, Teheran :
Iran rejected naming a new diplomat Saturday to represent it at the United Nations, with one lawmaker urging the Islamic Republic to stand up to “bullying” from the US., which has rejected granting its pick a visa.
The standoff over Hamid Aboutalebi, a member of the group responsible for the 1979 takeover of the US. Embassy in Tehran, comes as world powers negotiate with Iran over its contested nuclear program. It also threatens to stir fresh animosity between countries that recently have seen their relations thaw.
The Obama administration said Friday that the US. had informed Iran it would not grant a visa to Aboutalebi, suggesting that behind-the-scenes discussions to get them to withdraw him from consideration failed. On Saturday, Iranian state television anchors discussed the US. reject, with a crawl at the bottom of the screen reading: “The Foreign Ministry says Aboutalebi is Iran’s only choice as its UN. envoy.”
Prominent lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said the US. had no right to intervene in Iran’s UN. envoy pick.
“Naming Aboutalebi as Iran’s UN. envoy has nothing to do with the US. American opposition to Aboutalebi’s entry is a misuse of the geographical location of the UN.,” the Iranian parliament’s website quoted Boroujerdi as saying Saturday. “The Iranian government should stand up to this US. bullying.”
Boroujerdi, who heads the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, urged Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to write to UN. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to fight the US. decision.
Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was quoted by Iran’s semiofficial Mehr news agency as saying officials would pursue the issue “through anticipated legal channels at the UN.”
Aboutalebi is alleged to have participated in a Muslim student group that held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days during the embassy takeover.
