WASHINGTON - US officials Friday denied having delayed visas for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his entourage seeking to attend a UN Security Council vote on sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
But the State Department did confirm that Ahmadinejad had informed the US mission at the United Nations that he was not now going to travel to New York for Saturday's vote.
"Our UN Mission has been informed that President Ahmadinejad has now decided not to come to New York," deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.
"As we said, we provided visas to President Ahmadinejad's delegation, including his security and aircrew, in time for him to come to New York and speak at the Security Council on Saturday.
"Any suggestion that visa issues are the cause of President Ahmadinejad's decision not to travel to New York is false."
US officials said the first 39 visas were handed over in Bern, Switzerland at 10:00 am (0900 GMT), and that another 36 were issued some seven hours later.
"These visas were able to be issued despite the fact that the completed applications for many of them were not received until this morning," Casey said.
An Iranian official on Friday said Ahmadinejad could not now travel to New York in time for Saturday's Security Council meeting because the United States had deliberately issued the visas late.
"President Ahmadinejad's trip has been made impossible because of the lateness in supplying a visa by the United States," the official told AFP under condition of anonymity.
"Because of this, it is not possible to get the visa to Tehran on time, and the president's trip has therefore become virtually impossible," he added.
But that was completely denied by Casey who accused the Iranian leader of being "unwilling to stand before the Council and take the heat for his continued defiance of the international community."
Iran and the United States have not held diplomatic ties for the past 27 years, and Switzerland takes care of US interests in Iran, with Iranian interests in the US handled by Pakistan.
The Iranian leader had asked to address the council as it prepares to vote on a resolution imposing new sanctions on Tehran for refusing to rein in its suspect nuclear program.
Earlier Friday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said initial bunch of visas had been issued, but that additional requests for another 33 visas for Iranian crew members were still being examined.
"It was one of these incidents when they failed to fill out all the forms. But our folks in Bern are working as quickly as they can to make sure that those visas get issued within the confines of our host country obligations," McCormack said.
03/23/2007 21:59 GMT