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Iran's FM Zarif Barred From Entering US to Take Part in UN Security Council Meeting - Reports

© AP Photo / Petr David JosekIran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif  - Sputnik International
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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is being denied a US visa he had requested to enter the United States to participate in the UN Security Council meeting this week, 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 said 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, Iranian Quds Force Commander Major General Qasem Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike ordered by US President Donald Trump at the Baghdad International Airport, with his assassination dramatically escalating tensions in the Middle East.

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 to be 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.

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