US Denies Iran's Foreign Minister Request to Visit Washington

On Monday, the United States announced that it had denied a request from Iran's foreign minister to visit Washington last week, citing existing concerns in the US regarding Tehran's actions and the detention of American citizens.

This was reported by Voice of America. According to the report, after the conclusion of the UN General Assembly's work in New York, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian expressed a desire to visit Washington to access a consular service office for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, located at the Pakistani embassy in the US capital.

"They indeed made such a request, and it was denied by the State Department," US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters. "We are obligated to allow Iranian officials and representatives of foreign governments to enter New York to participate in UN activities, but we are not obliged to allow them to visit Washington," he added.

"Considering Iran's illegal detention of US citizens and the Iranian government's sponsorship of terrorism at the state level, we were not sure that it was appropriate to grant the request in such a case," Miller continued.

Last week marked a significant transaction between Washington and Tehran, where Iran released five American citizens, and the US unfroze nearly $6 billion of Iranian assets in South Korea, transferring it to a special account in Qatar.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his disagreement with the notion that the deal could lead to a certain warming of US-Iranian relations or serve as a basis for the resumption of negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.

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