White House To Iran: No Visa For U.N. Envoy Pick

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

By ASSOCIATED PRESS | 4/11/14 1:02 PM EDT Updated: 4/11/14 1:50 PM EDT

In a rare diplomatic rebuke, the United States will not grant a visa to Tehran's controversial pick for envoy to the United Nations, the Obama administration said Friday.

"We've communicated with the Iranians at a number of levels and made clear our position on this — and that includes our position that the selection was not viable," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. "Our position is that we will not be issuing him a visa."

Denying visas to U.N. ambassadorial nominees or to foreign heads of state who want to attend United Nations events in the United States is unusual, if not unprecedented. The move comes amid a possible thaw in the decades-long diplomatic freeze between the U.S. and Iran, as the two countries negotiate a deal to curb Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

The Obama administration had previously said only that it opposed the nomination of Hamid Aboutalebi, who was a member of the group responsible for the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. U.S. officials had hoped the issue could be resolved by Tehran simply withdrawing the nomination.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/white-house-iran-un-visa-105630.html?hp=l14

[cosmicone]

1. American exceptionalism again

When we needed them, we gave visas to nazis and nazi sympathizers to work on rockets and nukes.

We didn't deny visas to Fidel Castro or Muammar Q'addafi.

[dipsydoodle]

2. It is of course worth remembering exactly why the Iran student revolution occurred

The Iranian Revolution (also known as the National Revolution of Iran or the 1979 Revolution;[4][5][6][7][8][9] Persian: , Enqelābe Eslāmi or Enqelāb 22 Bahman) refers to events involving the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty under Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who was supported by the United States, and its eventual replacement with an Islamic republic under the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution, supported by various leftist and Islamic organizations[10] and Iranian student movements. While the Soviet Union immediately recognized the new Islamic Republic, it did not actively support the revolution, initially making efforts to salvage the Shah's government.[11]

Demonstrations against the Shah commenced in October 1977, developing into a campaign of civil resistance that was religious based (with secular elements).[12][13][14] and intensified in January 1978.[15] Between August and December 1978 strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the country. The Shah left Iran for exile on January 16, 1979 as the last Persian monarch, leaving his duties to a regency council and an opposition based prime minister. The Ayatollah Khomeini was invited back to Iran by the government,[16][17] and returned to Tehran to a greeting by several million Iranians.[18][19] The royal reign collapsed shortly after on February 11 when guerrillas and rebel troops overwhelmed troops loyal to the Shah in armed street fighting, and bringing Khomeini to official power.[20][21] Iran voted by national referendum to become an Islamic Republic on April 1, 1979,[22] and to approve a new theocratic-republican constitution[12][13][23][24] whereby Khomeini became Supreme Leader of the country, in December 1979.

The revolution was unusual for the surprise it created throughout the world:[25] it lacked many of the customary causes of revolution (defeat at war, a financial crisis, peasant rebellion, or disgruntled military),[26] occurred in a nation that was enjoying relatively good material wealth and prosperity,[16][24] produced profound change at great speed,[27] was massively popular, resulted in the exile of many Iranians,[28] and replaced a pro-Western absolute monarchy [16] with an anti-Western authoritarian theocracy[16][23][24][29][30] based on the concept of Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists (or velayat-e faqih). It was a relatively non-violent revolution, and helped to redefine the meaning and practice of modern revolutions (although there was violence in its aftermath).[31]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution

[Zorro]

3. Good

[Jake Stern]

4. It's time for the UN to move it's headquarters to a less spiteful nation that

can move beyond events that happened 30+ years ago.

[Calista241]

15. UN

One if the reasons the UN has been successful is that the diplomats actually WANT to come here.

NYC is a rockin place and the UN has some VERY expensive real estate and facilities.

I'm sure a bunch of other countries have all of these benefits and want to put up with several thousand entitled, pompous, immune to everything diplomats roaming around.

[chuckstevens]

5. Sorry Guys

I'd give him the visa and then arrest his ass! The US support of the Shah was despicable, but what the Iranians did to the Americans for 444 days can NEVER be viewed as right!

[Judi Lynn]

7. "Support of the Shah"? Couldn't hurt to do some research on the subject, could it? n/t

[chuckstevens]

8. So you think...

Holding embassy staff hostage for 444 is just fine, right? That was UNFORGIVABLE! The Americans in Iran did NOT deserve it and you are excusing it!

[DRoseDARs]

10. I really think you're misreading what she posted, as well as putting words in her mouth... nt

[Armadotrasgo]

11. It could be forgiven

If, of course, Iran would disavow the kidnapping, apologize and pay reparations to the victims and families. I don't see that happening.

[dipsydoodle]

12. Many families had been touched by SAVAK - the hostage drama was a biproduct.

SAVAK (Persian: ساواک, short for سازمان اطلاعات و امنیت کشور Sāzemān-e Ettelā'āt va Amniyat-e Keshvar, Organization of Intelligence and National Security) was the secret police, domestic security and intelligence service established by Iran's Mohammad Reza Shah with the help of the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (the CIA).[1] SAVAK operated from 1957 to 1979, when the Pahlavi dynasty was overthrown. SAVAK has been described as Iran's "most hated and feared institution" prior to the revolution of 1979 because of its practice of torturing and executing opponents of the Pahlavi regime.[2][3] At its peak, the organization had as many as 60,000 agents serving in its ranks according to one source,[4] although Gholam Reza Afkhami estimates SAVAK staffing at between 4,000 and 6,000.[5]

>

Sources[who?] disagree over how many victims SAVAK had and how inhumane its techniques were. Writing at the time of the Shah's overthrow, TIME magazine described SAVAK as having "long been Iran's most hated and feared institution" which had "tortured and murdered thousands of the Shah's opponents."[23] The Federation of American Scientists also found it guilty of "the torture and execution of thousands of political prisoners" and symbolizing "the Shah's rule from 1963-79." The FAS list of SAVAK torture methods included "electric shock, whipping, beating, inserting broken glass and pouring boiling water into the rectum, tying weights to the testicles, and the extraction of teeth and nails." [24]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAVAK

[DRoseDARs]

9. *fires up Wikipedia (because they really didn't teach this stuff in highschool)...*

Huh, looks like the US supported the pro-Western Shah from when he took power in 1941 to when he fled during the Islamic Revolution in 1979. I'm not sure what you're getting at, Judi. The 1953 CIA-fostered coup against the Prime Minister, not the Shah, and the Shah's own actions in the years following sealed his fate in 1979.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Diplomacy is for sissies, not for countries with the power to freely act like assholes.

Why waste time gibbering when you can just go kill them and take their spit?

[dipsydoodle]

13. Iran says has no plans to substitute UN envoy pick

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran says it has no plans to name a new diplomat to the United Nations after the United States blocked the man Tehran chose.

Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is quoted by the semiofficial Mehr news agency as saying Saturday that the Islamic Republic instead seeks to challenge the U.S. decision through legal channels.

The U.S. blocked Iran's pick because it alleges Hamid Aboutalebi took part in the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, in which 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days.

Aboutalebi says he was only a translator when militant students stormed the Embassy. Iran says he is one of the country's best diplomats, and that he previously received a U.S. visa. He has already served at Iranian diplomatic missions in Australia, Belgium and Italy.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAN_US_AMBASSADOR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-04-12-05-06-12

[Ash_F]

14. Again, what proof does the US government have of their wild accusations?

Oh right. None.