UN chief says has repeatedly protested to US over visa delays
UN chief Antonio Guterres says the United Nations has repeatedly expressed concern to Washington over US visa delays for officials from Russia and other countries.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric made the remark after the Russian foreign ministry accused the international organization of ignoring the US visa delays.
“For many months, the Secretary-General and the United Nations Legal Counsel have repeatedly conveyed their concerns and the legal position of the Organization to senior representatives of the host country,” Dujarric said in a statement.
The United Nations, he said, continued to follow the matter closely.
In September, 10 members of the Russian delegation to the UN General Assembly session were denied visas in a move which Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov called "outrageous" and pledged to retaliate.
Representatives from the UN delegations of China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia, and Syria say their diplomats and support staff are subjected to increasingly restrictive travel limitations, arbitrary denial of visas, and many other problems caused by US government, according to a report by the UN Committee on Relations with the Host Country (document A/73/26).
Those measures violate the host country treaty, or Headquarters Agreement, signed by the United States in 1947.
Many restrictions have been imposed on Iranian staff to the United Nations since July, including President Hassan Rouhani’s aides and the team of reporters accompanying him to New York, who were denied visas.
The US government also imposed strict travel restrictions on President Rouhani, so much so that he could not move far from the UN headquarters in the eastern side of Manhattan Island.
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