Media reports emerged during Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian’s visit to New York to attend the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly that he sought to visit Iran’s consular interests section in Washington, hosted by the embassy of Pakistan. Iran has not had an active embassy in Washington since 1980.
“We do have an obligation to allow Iranian officials and other officials of foreign governments to travel to New York for UN business, but we do not have an obligation to allow them to travel to Washington, D.C.,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Monday, specifically mentioning “Iran’s wrongful detention of U.S. citizens.”
Last week the US and Iran concluded a prisoner swap which saw $6 billion of Iranian funds frozen in South Korea being released and moved to restricted accounts in Qatar, a US ally.
During the course of the UNGA Amir-Abdollahian noted that Tehran is in contact with the US to revive the landmark nuclear agreement known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Under the 2015 nuclear deal Iran agreed to curb its nuclear enrichment program in exchange for much-needed relief from crippling sanctions.
However, the deal began unraveling in 2018, when Washington, under former US president Donald Trump’s administration, unilaterally withdrew from the accord and re-imposed biting sanctions on the Islamic republic, who in turn began stepping up its nuclear enrichment efforts.
“If the other parties are prepared, we will be serious about returning to the deal so that all parties would resume honoring their commitments,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York City, as reported by Iran’s state IRNA news agency.
Had he succeeded in his quest to travel to Washington, Amir-Abdollahian would have been the first Iranian chief diplomat to do so in 14 years.
