Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad canceled his visit to address the UN Security Council in New York because US visas for his team were issued too late, Iran's UN ambassador Javad Zarif said on Friday.
Ahmadinejad wanted to address the UN Security Council before it votes on a resolution that would expand sanctions on Iran over its refusal to cease uranium enrichment — a process that can make nuclear reactor fuel, or the fissile material for a nuclear warhead.
"The president is not coming" because the visa for his group was issued too late for him to get to New York on time, Zarif said, but added that Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, who had received his visa early on Friday, would take a commercial flight to New York to address the council.
Richard Grenell, a spokesman for the US mission to the United Nations, challenged Zarif's statement.
"Too late for what?" Grenell said. "The meeting hasn't even been scheduled yet. How can they say they are too late to come if the Security Council has not given a date and time for the event?"
Visa troubles
Earlier Friday, Iran complained that the United States had not issued a visa for the president. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iranian state-run radio that "despite going through administrative procedures and (US) promises in the media, the government of the United States has not yet issued a visa to our president."
Washington denied the allegation, saying the president's passport was on its way to Tehran. Daniel Wendell, a spokesman for the US embassy in Bern, Switzerland, said Ahmadinejad's and other Iranian officials' passports had been handed over in Bern on Friday.
Another 31 other passports for support staff were to ready later in the day. The passports would then be taken by courier to Tehran in time for the Iranians to fly to New York, Wendell had said.
Mohammad Mir Ali Mohammadi, press secretary of Iran's mission at the UN said that the US did not deliver a visa to the U.S. Embassy in Bern in time for the Iranian president to pick it up and fly to New York for the council session Saturday.
He said Russia and China were trying to postpone the session until Monday and if the session was put off Ahamdinejad would decide whether to come.
The resolution
The draft resolution to be discussed on Saturday comes after the UN's atomic energy watchdog agency said last month it could not verify that Iran's uranium enrichment program was strictly for peaceful purposes, as Iran has said.
As such, five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany came to an agreement on a resolution calling for harsher sanctions and presented it to the council last week, but several nations said they wanted to add amendments to it.
Security Council members put finishing touches on the resolution Friday. Major powers hope for a vote on Saturday, but it could be delayed until Sunday or Monday as US officials negotiate with Indonesia and Qatar, who want the measure to mention the need for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East.
South Africa, which submitted amendments that gutted all the sanctions drawn up by the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, may now vote "yes," diplomats said.
AP contributed to this report