US approves visas for top Iranian leaders to attend UN high-level meeting even with sides at war

As the host country for the United Nations headquarters, the U.S. is generally limited in what it can do to prevent foreign leaders from coming to the General Assembly. However, it has in the past denied visas to — or discouraged applications from — leaders involved in active conflicts with the United States.

For last year’s U.N. meetings of world leaders — which took place before the Iran war began on Feb. 28 but after the U.S. and Israel launched air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025 — the State Department also approved a limited number of visas for Iranian diplomats but also imposed rigid restrictions on the delegation’s movements.

Those included severe limitations on how far Iranian officials could travel in New York City from their U.N. mission and barred them from shopping at wholesale membership stores, such as Costco and Sam’s Club.

The decision on the Iranian visas was announced just a day after the State Department denied visas to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his delegation to come to the General Assembly.

“Consistent with our host country obligations, the core delegation from the Iranian regime will be able to attend UN General Assembly High Level week,” the State Department said. “The delegation will be under travel restrictions and will face prohibitions on the purchase of luxury and other goods per our policy. The delegation is smaller than last year.”

The department accused the Palestinian Authority — which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank — of trying to “internationalize” the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza by bringing cases to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court as well as continuing to pay stipends to prisoners jailed in Israel for attacks on Israelis.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the move and called Israel’s actions “the real threat to the two-state solution and prospects for peace.” It also said it remained committed to long-stalled negotiations but defended its efforts to gain Palestinian recognition through international bodies and courts.

“Punitive measures and restrictions imposed on Palestinian officials do not contribute to advancing peace or combating violence,” the authority’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “Rather, they weaken the Palestinian partner committed to a political solution and encourage forces working to undermine the two-state solution and impose the reality of occupation, settlement and annexation by force.”

The U.S. does not recognize the Palestinian Authority as the government of a full U.N. member state. The U.N. General Assembly, however, along with various U.N. agencies and organizations, does.

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Associated Press writer Sam Metz in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Matthew Lee, The Associated Press

by The Canadian Press

US approves visas for top Iranian leaders to attend UN high-level meeting even with sides at war

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