“We intend to ask the UN Secretary-General to intervene in the situation and try to resolve it”, the source said on Tuesday.
According to the source, the Sixth Committee - which deals with legal issues - will resume its session or Friday or the following Monday, after taking a pause due to the problems that diplomats, including from Russia, Iran and Cuba, have faced when trying to obtain US visas.
“A compromise was reached to skip the first three items of the Committee [combating international terrorism, the rule of law, criminal accountability of UN officials] so as not to block the work of the forum”, the source said.
The source explained that the rest of the program of work and its approval would depend on whether there will be progress regarding the US refusal to grant visas and imposing restrictions on the movement of diplomats.
Earlier on Tuesday, UN General Assembly First Committee President Sacha Llorenti proposed to resume the work of the panel on 10October at 10 a.m. (12:00 p.m. GMT).
The First Committee also suspended its work on Monday because the United States; practice not to issue visas to diplomats from a number of delegations, including to members of the Russian delegation.
Last week, Russia’s Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy proposed to shift the location of the First Committee from New York to Vienna or Geneva, citing obstacles Russian diplomats have faced when trying to obtain US visas.
Polyianskiy said the US authorities had not issued visas to some of the Russian experts who planned to travel to New York to take part in the First Committee’s session this year.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the world body has addressed the issue of the United States denying visas to Russian diplomats - who were set to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly First Committee - at different levels.
