generalspeaking

Emphatically Persona Non-Grata

"The execution was planned by high-ranking political-religious officials in Tehran, with the task entrusted to a group sent specially to Italy, co-ordinated there by the accused, Bozorgian, in his role as head of a logistics and information unit (obviously secret), which was directly answerable to the Iranian diplomatic representative in our country, in particular the ambassador Abutalebi."
(verbal testimony quoted) Rome Supreme Court summary judgement, December 16, 2008

"Why has Rouhani, who very well knows that Abutalebi has been directly involved in the seizure of the American embassy in 1979, picked him as his envoy at the UN? Did he not calculate the risks involved in such [a] selection that would lead to further tensions with the U.S.?"
"He seems to only have two options left to him now; either insist on Abutalebi's appointment and lock horns with the Americans at the time of seeking rapprochement with them, or back off and then bring the independence of our country into question by surrendering to the U.S. pressures."
Bulletin News editorial, Iran

File    Hamid Abutalebi, pictured, was accused of overseeing the alleged assassination by Iranian agents of Mohammad Hossein Naghdi in Rome in 1993 when he was the Iranian ambassador in Italy

The cunning Iranian diplomacy outfoxing itself into a corner? So it would seem. The United States appears adamant; it will not issue a visa for Hamid Abutalebi to assume the position assigned to him as Tehran's next ambassador to the United Nations. The UN infrastructure is, after all, situated in the city of New York in the state of New York in the United States of America. Accreditation is a given to all those diplomats appointed by their countries to represent their interests in the United States.

Normally, it is. These are particularly sensitive circumstances, leading from events that identify Tehran's new ambassador to the United Nations as an individual central to events clarifying the Islamic Republic of Iran's status as a terrorist regime. And so, the White House has declared Mr. Abutalebi's nomination to head the Republic's UN delegation "not viable". Back to the drawing board for the "moderate" president of Iran, who has charmed his way to soft diplomatic authenticity.

Not that Mr. Rouhani himself hasn't a chequered personal history as a close aide to former Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and an insider with roots deep within the Islamic Republic inner decision-making circle since the time of its revolutionary upheaval of Iran. He was given a pass, his political acolyte has not been so honoured as to overlook his past, esteemed though he may be as a loyal, deserving prop for the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The U.S. Senate unanimously adopted a resolution calling on the Obama administration to deny a visa to Mr. Abutalebi on the strength of his background. Notably, his role as a translator for the rabidly radical Iranian students whose rampaging violent assault against the American embassy in Tehran in 1979 ended with 51 American diplomats held as hostages for 444 days, political-ideological prisoners of the new Great Satan-hating Revolutionary Council of Iran.

Tehran objects, quantifying Mr. Abutalebi as one of their country's best diplomats, who has worked as an adviser to the foreign affairs minister most recently. Leaving little doubt that his qualifications speak volumes; positively for the Iranians, negatively for the Americans. But there are other issues at work with Mr. Abutalebi related to his position as Iranian ambassador to Rome. He has been connected to the assassination of another Iranian in Rome, an event that took place in 1993.

Mohammad Hossein Naghdi was himself formerly an Iranian diplomat, working at Tehran's Rome embassy. But Mr. Nabhdi was at work under the reign of Shah Pahlevi. He had defected to the opposition People's Mujahadeen, a group hated by the Islamic Republic. He was assassinated on a Rome street in a murder whose investigation continued until 2008 when a former Iranian intelligence agent cleared the mystery.

Abolghasem Mesbahi, formerly an Iranian intelligence agent based in Germany, informed Italian police that an agent, Amir Mansur Assi Bozorgian, head of Iranian intelligence in Rome was involved in the shooting of Mr. Naghdi. A killing that was supervised and controlled by none other than Iran's ambassador to Italy at the time, Mr. Abutalebi. Intrigues and assassinations are the stuff of which such regimes as Iran's plot against those who conspire against them.

"We have announced to the Americans that we have appointed one of our most experienced and logical diplomats to serve at the UN. We will decide according to the case how to choose the best method to follow up the case according to available UN mechanisms. The government of the United States is well aware that this behaviour is by no means acceptable to the Islamic Republic."
Mohammad Zarif, Iranian foreign minister

Labels: Conflict, Diplomacy, Iran, United Nations, United States

posted by Pieface @ Thursday, April 10, 2014