State Department Lets Iran’s President Into New York for UN Week — and Bars Abbas Again

The State Department said Thursday that a “core delegation from the Iranian regime” will be allowed into New York for United Nations General Assembly High-Level Week, even as the United States and Iran remain at war nearly seven months after fighting began on Feb. 28. Officials familiar with the visas, speaking on condition of anonymity because of visa privacy rules, said the group includes Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, plus essential staff. Pezeshkian is scheduled to address the 81st General Assembly on Wednesday. President Donald Trump is expected to speak in the general debate on Tuesday.

“Consistent with our host country obligations, the core delegation from the Iranian regime will be able to attend UN General Assembly High Level Week,” a department spokesman 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.” Those limits follow rules the administration tightened in 2025: movement confined to what is needed to reach U.N. Headquarters, and no wholesale or luxury shopping. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said Thursday the United States “will not let the Iranian regime’s elites exploit UNGA for a luxury retail splurge paid for by the Iranian people’s suffering, all while the regime funnels Iran’s wealth to support its terrorist proxies.”

The 1947 U.N. Headquarters Agreement generally requires the host country to admit delegations. Washington has long argued it may still deny visas on security and foreign-policy grounds. It used that authority this week against Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The State Department extended visa sanctions on PLO members and PA officials, citing failure to reform, payments and glorification tied to terrorism, and efforts to “internationalize” the conflict through international tribunals. Abbas was refused entry for a second straight year. The General Assembly voted 152–3, with four abstentions, to let him speak by video. Palestinian diplomats already accredited to the U.N. will remain in New York.

The visa decision comes as the administration continues both economic and military pressure on Tehran. The House this week sent Trump the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act. Trump has told reporters Iran has reached out and that he hopes the war is moving toward an end, while also saying a “big decision” on the next phase is coming. The two sides remain in a stalemate over the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear program. Pezeshkian and Araghchi are the Islamic Republic’s public-facing officials; they do not control the IRGC. Their presence in Manhattan does not reopen the strait and does not stop the fighting. It does put the two governments in the same Midtown blocks for a week under host-country rules the administration says it is bound to follow — and under shopping and travel limits it says the regime’s elite will not be allowed to treat as a shopping trip.