Just days after Iran's unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel, following months of attacks on U.S. troops in the region by Iranian terrorist organizations, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian still holds a valid U.S. visa.
"I write to request immediate action to revoke the visa of Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian ahead of his planned travel to attend a United Nations Security Council meeting on April 18, 2024," Republican Senator James Lankford wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken late Monday. "As documented by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) in its letter to you last week, Amir-Abdollahian is a senior card-carrying member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and has direct ties to the heinous October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel and the ongoing attacks that Iran continues to orchestrate through Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Houthis. In the wake of Saturday’s direct attack by Iran on our ally, Israel, I urge you to prevent Iran from using American soil as a platform to amplify its anti-Israel and anti-American rhetoric."
"Given his ties to terrorism against Israel and US forces, Amir-Abdollahian should not be welcome in our country. April 18, the day of his anticipated meeting at the UN, also marks the 41st anniversary of Iran-backed Hezbollah’s 1983 bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, which killed 63 people, including 52 Lebanese and American Embassy employees, and injured 120. Several months later, Hezbollah’s bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut would end up killing another 241 Americans. Hosting a senior member of the IRGC on the 41st anniversary of Hezbollah’s terrorist attack would be an insult to the victims and their families," Lankford continued.
While the Biden administration will argue the approval is standard diplomatic practice, the Trump administration denied a U.S. visa to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in 2020.