UANI Calls On U.S. To Deny Entry Visa To Iran’s Foreign Minister

(New York, NY) – On Wednesday, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace called on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to deny a visa for Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, a card carrying member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and his delegation ahead of an anticipated visit to New York next week. Amir-Abdollahian, who will reportedly attend a meeting on the Israel-Hamas conflict at the United Nations on April 18, 2024, personally participated in planning meetings for the October 7 attack on Israel, while the IRGC trained 500 Hamas terrorists in Iran in the months before the attack.

April 18 also marks the 41st anniversary of Iran-backed Hezbollah’s bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983. That attack killed 63, including 52 Lebanese and American Embassy employees, and injured 120. It was a prelude to another Hezbollah bombing in October 1983 that killed 241 Americans in what would be the single deadliest terror attack against the U.S. until 9/11. The IRGC, of which Amir-Abdollahian is a senior member, incubated and directed Hezbollah’s terrorism in the 1980s. Amir-Abdollahian’s presence would be a slap in the face to the victims of the attack 41 years ago and their families.

In a letter to Secretary Blinken, Ambassador Wallace wrote:

“The U.S. government has repeatedly granted Amir-Abdollahian a visa despite his outrageous behavior on American soil. He has threatened the United States and engaged in anti-American and antisemitic diatribes while in Manhattan. Previous visits coincided with more instances of brutal domestic repression in Iran. While Amir-Abdollahian was in New York in January 2024, the regime executed Mohammad Ghobadlou, a 23-year-old Iranian protester—perhaps just as Amir-Abdollahian was ordering room service from his penthouse suite at the Millennium Hilton Hotel at UN Plaza. Regime executions of protesters have continued unabated and even escalated since the murder of Mahsa Amini while in police custody on September 16, 2022, an event which finally roused many members of the international community to appreciate the true heinous nature of the regime. Amnesty International found that Iran’s regime executed 853 people in 2023, the highest number recorded since 2015.”

“We remain highly concerned at the U.S. State Department’s overly generous policy of granting visas to Iranians officials complicit in the regime’s terrorism and repression. We wrote to the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs just last month to protest the visa given to the Iranian regime’s vice president for women and family affairs despite her atrocious record in the abuse of women in Iran. But we have not received a response. Both Democratic and Republican Members of Congress wrote to you last month as well demanding the U.S. State Department impose such visa restrictions. In light of the above and out of respect for the victims of IRGC and Hezbollah terrorism, we urge you to rescind Amir-Abdollahian’s visa and deny him entry to the U.S.”

UANI has yet to receive a response from the Biden administration.

To read the full letter to Secretary Blinken, please click here.