Senate Votes to Stop New Iranian Envoy to UN from Entering US
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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The Senate unanimously passed a measure Monday that would prevent one of the organizers of the 1979 U.S. Embassy seizure in Tehran, Iran from entering the U.S.
Hamid Aboutalebi, who belonged to a student group that took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days, is Iran’s new ambassador to the United Nations. Previous to that, his application for a visa to come to the U.S. as a diplomat has been stalled.
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz sponsored the bill to block Aboutalebi, which briefly brought together the usually divided Senate. Legislation must also pass the House and get President Obama’s signature before the U.S. can legally stop Iran’s ambassador from taking his seat at the U.N. headquarters in New York.
Lawmakers generally agree with Cruz’s sentiment that Aboutalebi “is an acknowledged terrorist.” New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, one of Cruz’s political foes, said in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry that allowing the Iranian to enter the U.S. “is a slap in the face to the Americans that were abducted, and their families; it reveals a disdain for the diplomatic process and we should push back in kind.”
Both the White House and State Department have also raised concerns about Aboutalebi’s appointment as Tehran’s U.N. ambassador.
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