Iranian choice of UN ambassador troubling: US

SAN FRANCISCO: The US has termed Iran's anticipated nomination of a diplomat as its new ambassador to the United Nations "extremely troubling" for his alleged involvement in the 1979 US Embassy hostage crisis in Tehran.

However, the State Department remains quite on issuing a US visa to Hamid Aboutalebi to serve as the Iranian Ambassador to the UN in New York.

"We don't talk about visa cases individually as they're being adjudicated.

So I won't go into the specifics of this case, but I will say that we think this nomination would be extremely troubling," State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf said.

Hamid Aboutalebi was a member of a Muslim student group that stormed the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

"We're taking a close look at the case now, and we've raised our serious concerns about this possible nomination with the Government of Iran," she said.

"I'm not going to get into specifically how we've done that, but we have done that. As host nation of the UN, except for in limited exceptions, we're generally obligated, as folks know, under an agreement between the US and the UN to admit the chosen representatives of member states into the US for purposes of representing their country at the UN. But no predictions in terms of this specific visa case for you," Harf said.