U.S. COULD BLOCK VISA FOR IRANIAN PRESIDENT
By Guy Dinmore

Financial Times (UK)
August 5, 2005

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/b8630304-054c-11da-97da-00000e2511c8.html

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is considering taking the unprecedented step of preventing a visiting head of state from addressing the United Nations in New York by denying a visa to Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, Iran's newly elected conservative president. Officials said a decision rested on the outcome of investigations into whether Mr. Ahmadi-Nejad was involved in the 1979 U.S. embassy hostage crisis, and the killing of an Iranian-Kurdish dissident leader in Vienna in 1989. Iran denies his involvement in either event. A senior Iranian official yesterday confirmed that Mr. Ahmadi-Nejad planned to address the U.N. Millennium Summit and its annual General Assembly next month. His U.S. visa application is expected to be submitted today.