In a statement on Wednesday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry described the move as representing a violation of the US commitments as a host of the United Nations’ headquarters.
“The recent decision by the US authorities to deny an entry visa to Mr Hamid Abutalebi, a new Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations, has caused our bewilderment,” it said.
The statement underlined that the visa denial is nothing but a means of political pressure from Washington on a member state of the UN.
The White House has said Abutalebi will not be welcomed in the US, describing his nomination as “not viable”. It came after the US House of Representatives approved a legislation that prevents the Iranian UN envoy from entering the US.
Washington has decided to deny a visa to Abutalebi over his possible involvement in the takeover of the US embassy in Tehran during post-revolution incidents in 1979.
On November 4, 1979, and in less than a year after the victory of the Islamic Revolution that toppled a US-backed monarchy, Iranian university students that called themselves "students following the line of (the late) Imam (Khomeini)" seized the US embassy in Tehran.
The students justified the takeover by insisting that the compound had become a center of espionage and planning to overthrow the newly established Islamic system in Iran.
The students occupying the embassy later published documents proving that the compound was indeed engaged in plans and measures to overthrow the Islamic system.