Iran has requested a special meeting of a UN committee after the United States announced it will not grant a visa to Tehran’s new UN ambassador appointee.

On April 11, Washington said it would not grant a visa to Hamid Abutalebi because of his links to the 1979-1981 Tehran hostage crisis when radical Iranian students seized the U.S. Embassy and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Abutalebi has said that he acted only as a translator.

Iran has asked for a meeting of the UN Committee on Relations with the Host Country, said Cyprus UN Ambassador Nicholas Emiliou, who chairs the 19-member group which deals with issues including visas, immigration and security.

Iranian Foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham was quoted by state news agency IRNA earlier on April 14 as saying: “The official mechanisms for following up the complaint have been activated and we are going to follow up the case.”

Based on AP and AFP reporting 

RFE/RL