Hostage-Taking Past of Iran’s UN Pick a Dilemma for Obama
Iran has forced a foreign policy dilemma on the Obama administration by choosing as its next United Nations ambassador an official who belonged to the group that held 52 Americans hostage in Tehran for 444 days.
Irans government has applied for the U.S. visa required for Hamid Aboutalebi to take the UN post in New York, Bloomberg News reported March 29. Aboutalebi, Irans former ambassador to Belgium and Italy, was a member of the group of radical students that seized the U.S. embassy on Nov. 4, 1979.
The Iranian move poses a headache for President Barack Obamas administration as it tries to balance international negotiations aimed at curbing Irans nuclear program against skepticism at home about whether the Islamic Republic has changed its ways, said Michael Singh, managing director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Denying a visa to Irans ambassador-designate could upset President Obamas still-delicate diplomatic re-engagement with Iran, Singh, a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the U.S. National Security Council, said in an e-mailed statement. But granting the visa will prove controversial in the U.S. and will reinforce the impression among regional allies that Washington is willing to ignore Iranian misbehavior in our pursuit of a nuclear accord.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani chose Aboutalebi to serve at the UN, which is headquartered on international soil in New York, after an interim nuclear deal between Iran and six international powers was forged on Nov. 24.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-31/hostage-taking-past-of-iran-s-un-pick-a-dilemma-for-obama.html