Zarif confirms UN informed him that US has denied him visa

Iran’s foreign minister says he has been informed by UN chief Antonio Guterres that Washington has denied him a visa for a trip to UN headquarters in New York.

“What we know is that the US State Secretary (Mike Pompeo), in a call to the Secretary General of the United Nations, said: ‘We did not have time to issue a visa for Mohammad Javad Zarif and we will not issue a visa,'” Zarif says.

“The secretary general responded by saying that it is Iran’s right to take part in this session,” Iran’s top diplomat says, quoted by semi-official news agency ISNA.

So far there has been no official confirmation from Washington that it has rejected Zarif’s visa application.

— AFP