The Trump administration has approved visas for Iran's "core delegation" to attend next week's United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting in New York, even as the US and Iran remain locked in a war that's now stretched more than six months without a diplomatic resolution.

Who's Getting In

The approved delegation includes Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, along with essential staff, according to US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity due to visa privacy laws. A State Department spokesperson confirmed the decision Thursday, September 17: "Consistent with our host country obligations, the core delegation from the Iranian regime will be able to attend UN General Assembly High Level Week."

Restrictions Still Apply

The visas come with conditions. The State Department noted: "The delegation will be under travel restrictions and will face prohibitions on the purchase of luxury and other goods per our policy." These kinds of movement and spending restrictions on sanctioned foreign officials attending UN business in New York aren't unprecedented — the Trump administration had imposed similar limitations on the Iranian delegation during last year's UN gathering as well.

Why the US Had to Allow It

As the host country of the United Nations, the US operates under longstanding host country obligations that generally require it to grant visas to representatives of UN member states attending official UN business, barring extraordinary circumstances. This principle has led the US to admit adversarial leaders to General Assembly sessions many times in the past, including Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, and multiple prior Iranian presidents, even during periods of severe diplomatic tension.

A Notable Contrast: Abbas Denied

The Iranian visa decision came just a day after the State Department denied visas to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his delegation for the same General Assembly session — an extension of existing sanctions that bar Palestinian Authority and PLO officials from attending the annual UN gathering. The juxtaposition — granting entry to the leader of a country actively at war with the US while denying it to the Palestinian president — has drawn attention as a stark illustration of the administration's current diplomatic priorities.

The Backdrop: An Unresolved War

The decision comes seven months into the US-Iran war, with no agreement in place to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and no indication that formal talks between the two countries are imminent. An Iranian presidential protocol official said last month that Tehran was still assessing the level and size of its General Assembly attendance this year, separately calling conditions imposed by the US "illegal" without elaborating further.

What's on the Schedule

The UN's high-level week runs from September 18-28. The General Assembly's general debate — where world leaders deliver their speeches — begins Tuesday, with President Trump expected to speak. Pezeshkian is scheduled to address the General Assembly on Wednesday.

A Long History of Complicated Iranian Visa Decisions

The current episode continues a decades-long pattern of fraught, closely watched visa decisions for visiting Iranian leaders. In 2005, the George W. Bush administration granted a visa to then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad despite Homeland Security initially deeming him ineligible over suspected involvement in the 1979 US embassy hostage crisis — a decision the State Department ultimately overrode citing host-country obligations, while stressing "we have not forgotten" the unresolved questions about his past activities. Under the Trump administration's first term, by contrast, then-Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was denied a visa entirely in 2019 — an unusual departure from the norm of allowing at least token Iranian representation at the UN.

Congressional Pushback

Not everyone in Washington supports this kind of engagement. A group of Republican senators, including Rick Scott, Tom Cotton, Joni Ernst, and Markwayne Mullin, sent a letter to the previous administration in 2024 urging denial of entry visas to Pezeshkian and other foreign leaders they characterized as security threats, arguing such attendance risks giving "the most evil leaders on Earth" a platform to gain international credibility.

What's Next

With visas now approved and Pezeshkian's Wednesday address on the calendar, this year's General Assembly offers a rare, if constrained, moment of direct proximity between senior US and Iranian officials on American soil — even without any indication that the underlying war is any closer to resolution. For continuing coverage, see the full Associated Press report via The Boston Globe.