Iranian President may be denied visa

petulance and pettiness are so unbecoming...

The Bush administration may deny a visa to the new Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad who is expected to address the U.N. summit of world leaders Sep. 14-16.

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Officially, neither the Bush administration nor the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has confirmed that Ahmadi-Nejad was one of the students who held U.S. embassy officials as hostages after the siege. The Iranians have also said the new president was not involved in the takeover of the U.S. embassy.

"But still, the Bush administration could use this rumour as an pretext to deny him a visa to enter the United States for the upcoming summit, thereby triggering another political confrontation with the United Nations," says a senior U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The United States has always maintained that it has a legitimate right to deny a visa (even if the person is on an official visit to the United Nations) if he or she is deemed a threat to the "national security" of the country.

But U.N. spokesman Dujarric told reporters Friday: "The host country agreement (between the United Nations and the United States) calls on the United States not to impose any impediment to the travel to the United Nations of any representative of a member state on official business."

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