The US State Department said Saturday that the United States had “expelled” two members of the Iranian delegation that recently attended United Nations General Assembly meetings after they ignored an order to leave the country.
A US official said, “Two additional members of the Iranian delegation were found to still be in New York long after the UN General Assembly had concluded. They have now been expelled from the United States,” adding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio “is serious about what he says.”
US media reported that the State Department had asked Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his delegation to leave the country on Monday. It later moved to expel the two members after learning from Iran’s UN mission on Friday that they were still in the United States.
According to Axios, one of the delegation members left late Friday, while the second departed Saturday morning.
US and Iranian officials met in New York last week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings.
US President Donald Trump had rejected a proposal from Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days, but told US media that he expected talks to resume in the coming days.
Meanwhile, Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported that no further direct talks between Tehran and Washington had been scheduled.
Source: AFP
