Iran withdraws first choice for Ambassador to the UN

Iran has retreated in the face of growing pressure from the United States and has named a new envoy – Gholamali Khoshroo – to the United Nations, after withdrawing its first choice, Hamid Aboutalebi. While the US, as the host country, is obliged to issue visas to diplomats, a provision in the country’s law allows it to deny permission in order to “safeguard its own security”.

The US had announced that it would not grant visa to Aboutalebi because of his role in the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis.

Aboutalebi was an important member of the student group, “the followers of the imam’s line”, which took over the US Embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage for a period of 444 days. He was also involved in the assassination of Mohammad Hossein Naghdi in 1993, the representative in Rome of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). Mr Nagdhi had defected from the Iranian regime in 1982 due to its policy of brutal suppression of political dissent.

While Aboutalebi claims that he merely acted as translator during the hostage crisis, others are not at all convinced. Regardless, the Iranian regime’s attempt to appoint an alleged terrorist as ambassador to the UN has only antagonized the US, and has been widely regarded as a miscalculation. Ultimately, the regime has had to take its decision back in consideration of “the current critical condition in the region and the world”.