US denies visas to members of Iranian president’s UN delegation

President Pezeshkian is the highest-ranking Iranian official to enter the US since the conflict between the two countries began.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

The United States has denied visas to several members of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s delegation to the UN General Assembly while allowing the president and other senior officials to enter the country under restrictions.

Pezeshkian, the highest-ranking Iranian official to enter the US since the conflict between the two countries began, is scheduled to address the General Assembly on Wednesday.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency criticized Washington’s decision to exclude some members of the delegation, including members of Pezeshkian’s communications team.

“In an unprecedented hostile move by the US government, [US President Donald] Trump has denied US visas to certain members of the president’s high-level delegation, including members of his communications team,” IRNA reported.

Those permitted to attend the UN gathering will also face limits similar to restrictions imposed last year.

The State Department said Thursday that Iranian delegation members would be prohibited from purchasing luxury goods and certain other items while in the United States.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is among the Iranian officials traveling to the General Assembly. He left Iran on Sunday evening, with a stopover in Qatar before continuing his trip.

Qatar is also acting as an intermediary in communications between Washington and Tehran.

Iran said it had conveyed through Doha its conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic shipping route for oil and gas that Tehran has sought to choke off since the war began.

The United States, meanwhile, is imposing a counterblockade on Iranian ports.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei accused the Trump administration of “trampling on the right of access to information,” referring to the White House’s recent decision to prevent access to certain US journalists.

“When an administration slams its doors shut — even on American journalists it happens to dislike — and bars foreign reporters, including the Iranian president’s media team, whose voices it would rather silence, it is not managing access; it is trying to hide the truth,” Baghaei said on X.