The spokesman of the Iranian Foreign ministry said on Friday night that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would not visit the UN Security Council to address a Saturday meeting on his country's nuclear program due to the late visa issuance from the US side, the state television reported.

 

 

President Ahmadinejad cannot speak before the UN Security Council due to the "US obstacle on visa issuance" to him and his delegation, the ministry's spokesman Mohammed Ali Hosseini was quoted as saying.

 

Instead of that, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki will go to New York to attend the meeting and "explain Iran's position on the nuclear issue," he added.

 

"The Americans have triumphantly prevented President Ahmadinejad from joining the conference through their failure to issue visas for him and his accompanying delegation," said Hosseini.

 

In addition, some Western reports said that Mohammad Mir Ali Mohammadi, press secretary of Iran's mission at the UN, also reported that the US government had not granted the needed visas to the US Embassy in Switzerland in time for the Iranian leader to visit New York.

 

Ahmadinejad was prepared to go to New York to address a Security Council meeting on Saturday, in order to prevent another UN nuclear sanction resolution against his country.

 

However, the US State Department said Friday that the White House had already delivered visas for Iranian president and his 38 corteges so he could express his opinions at that meeting when the Security Council member states begin to vote on the resolution.

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 24, 2007)