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Iran accused the United States on Wednesday of using new restrictions on its delegation to the United Nations as a tool of political pressure, after Washington limited Iranian diplomats’ movements in New York and denied visas to much of President Masoud Pezeshkian’s media team.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said the curbs, which include restrictions on daily activities such as grocery shopping, were aimed at “disrupting Iran's diplomatic performance” during the UN General Assembly.
He described them as “a blatant violation” of US obligations under the 1947 UN Headquarters Agreement.
“The systematic harassment of Iranian diplomats has obstructed delegates from attending several multilateral events outside the so-called ‘permitted parameters’ this week alone,” Baghaei wrote on social media, calling the measures “a new low” in US hostility toward Iranians.
Iran accused the United States on Wednesday of using new restrictions on its delegation to the United Nations as a tool of political pressure, after Washington limited Iranian diplomats’ movements in New York and denied visas to much of President Masoud Pezeshkian’s media team.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said the curbs, which include restrictions on daily activities such as grocery shopping, were aimed at “disrupting Iran's diplomatic performance” during the UN General Assembly.
He described them as “a blatant violation” of US obligations under the 1947 UN Headquarters Agreement.
“The systematic harassment of Iranian diplomats has obstructed delegates from attending several multilateral events outside the so-called ‘permitted parameters’ this week alone,” Baghaei wrote on social media, calling the measures “a new low” in US hostility toward Iranians.
The US State Department said Monday that the restrictions were intended to prevent Iran’s delegation from “lavish shopping” in New York while ordinary Iranians face economic hardship, and to limit Tehran’s ability to “promote its terrorist agenda.”
It confined delegates to the area between UN headquarters and their hotel, with transit allowances for official meetings.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported separately that most of Pezeshkian’s media staff were denied visas, leaving only two aides -- his press chief and deputy -- to cover what it called a large number of events during the trip.
It noted that under the new rules, even the purchase of fountain pens is classified as a “luxury” requiring special permits.
The dispute comes as Pezeshkian prepare to address the 80th UNGA amid heightened tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, the looming reimposition of UN “snapback” sanctions later this month, and the fallout from a 12-day war with Israel in June.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told Iran International on Tuesday there is no prospect of renewed war with Tehran in the near future after US and Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities earlier this year.
Danon said US and Israeli strikes in June delivered a major setback to Iran’s nuclear program and that it would take Tehran years to rebuild.
Asked whether Israel might carry out more attacks on Iran, Danon said it was unlikely.
“I don't think we're moving toward war, you know, Israel is a peaceful nation. And I think Iran should focus its energy supporting the Iranian people, not to spend billions on the proxies, on Hezbollah, on the Houthis.”
“They should support their own people in Iran. They deserve better than that,” he told Iran International at UN headquarters in New York,.
Still, he framed the strikes as a chance to rally the world to action, not the start of an open conflict.
Danon urged the international community to seize the moment not for escalation, but for pressure — through tougher sanctions and inspections.
“As of now, I see now is the time for the international community to step in and to apply more pressure,” he said.
He also voiced skepticism about Tehran’s alleged offer to Europeans to dilute its highly enriched uranium without intrusive verification.
His comments came hours after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei categorically rejected negotiations with Washington, dismissing President Donald Trump’s demand that Iran end all uranium enrichment as “dictation, not negotiation.”
In a televised speech, Khamenei said Iran would never bow to threats and vowed enrichment would continue, declaring that “a proud nation like the Iranian people will slap the mouth of the one who says this.”
In New York, Iran’s foreign minister met with his British, French, and German counterparts in last-ditch talks aimed at preventing the automatic reimposition of UN sanctions on September 28.
Diplomats warned that the chances of success remain slim, saying Tehran has yet to take the concrete steps needed to avert snapback. “The ball is in Iran’s court,” one European envoy said.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi told The Times Tehran could resume enrichment “within weeks.”
But Danon said the strikes had bought valuable time — and that Israel’s priority now is to use that time to build international pressure on Tehran, not to move toward war.
Former deputy director Olli Heinonen told Iran International's podcast Eye for Iran that roughly 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent remains unaccounted for — enough material for several nuclear weapons if further refined.
“Either Iran makes a gesture and goes back to the path of peace and accountability that make it possible to get back on course… or sanctions will have to be imposed,” French President Macron said from the podium of the UN General Assembly.
“I’ll have an occasion to meet with the president tomorrow (Wednesday) on each of these crucial issues.”
In Tehran today, debate over Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s hardline stance on nuclear negotiations carries an unmistakable echo of the end of Iran’s eight-year war with Iraq in 1988.
Then, as now, Iran faced a grinding impasse: Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini resisted UN Resolution 598 which called for an end to hostilities until the cost of defiance became unbearable.
The resolution, passed on July 20, 1987, demanded a ceasefire, prisoner exchanges and a return to recognized borders.
Saddam Hussein accepted immediately. Khomeini refused, vowing that “the war should continue until the end of all seditions in the world.”
Washington warned of sanctions, and then-President Ali Khamenei told the UN General Assembly Iran was “determined to punish the aggressor.”
‘Poison chalice’
The war dragged on another year, draining finances and costing thousands more lives.
By August 1988, even then-Revolutionary Guards commander Mohsen Rezai conceded it was unsustainable. Morale had collapsed, tens of thousands were dead and Iran’s military capabilities shattered.
Khomeini finally relented, confessing that accepting Resolution 598 was “more deadly than drinking from a poisoned chalice.”
The phrase became a metaphor for concessions made too late, when pride collides with reality.
That poisoned chalice haunts Iran again.
No turning back
After the 12-day war with Israel, many in Tehran urged the leadership to abandon uranium enrichment and open direct talks with Washington, arguing only such a step can relieve Iran’s economic misery.
Yet Khamenei remains unmoved, caught between hardliners demanding defiance and moderates pleading for pragmatism.
Fond of channeling his predecessor, Khamenei had likened agreeing to a 2015 nuclear deal as drinking from that same poison chalice.
The IAEA continues to demand answers on uranium reserves. The Trump administration insists Iran’s nuclear program has been dismantled and warns against escalation.
Israel, emboldened by its strikes on Tehran and regional proxies, demands not only an end to Iran’s missile program but at times even regime change. Europe has its own conditions for halting or delaying the snapback of sanctions.
'Slap in the face'
On Tuesday, on the eve of President Masoud Pezeshkian’s address to the UN General Assembly, Khamenei poured cold water on any hope of reconciliation, effectively torpedoing the president’s diplomatic message before it was delivered.
Doubling down on a red line, he declared: “Negotiating with the United States under the current conditions carries harms for Iran, some of which are irreparable ... This is not negotiation, this is dictation.”
Hours earlier, Trump had mocked him at the UN as Iran’s “so-called” Supreme Leader. Khamenei shot back that Iranians would “give a slap in the face to the person" making arrogant demands of Iran.
Inside Iran, moderates call for dialogue, while hardliners close to Khamenei, including the editor of the state-funded Kayhan newspaper, deride them as “kissing Trump's bottom.”
The result is paralysis.
For Khamenei, the options appear stark: war or negotiation. A years-old quote of his "neither war nor negotiation" was not long ago plastered as a mural on a Tehran high-rise. But history suggests delay carries its own cost.
In 1988, the poisoned chalice was forced upon Khomeini only after Iran’s military was exhausted, its economy shattered, and its people demoralized.
Today, the risk is that Khamenei repeats the same mistake—clinging to defiance until the only choice left is abject humiliation.
