Washington targeted the Iranian media delegation accompanying President Masoud Pezeshkian by refusing to grant them entry visas to the United States, on the eve of the United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York, in a move that sparked sharp criticism in Tehran.
This decision came despite the US authorities’ approval to grant entry visas to Bezashkian, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and members of the main political delegation, while imposing clear restrictions on their movements and activities throughout their stay in New York to participate in the 81st session of the General Assembly.
In the official reactions, the Director General of Media Productions in the Iranian Presidency, Seyyed Mohammad Hassan Balaghi, considered that the deprivation of the media team – which was small and was scheduled to cover the president’s activities and the results of his visit – reflects the great influence of the Iranian media in confronting the American-Israeli narrative.
Balaghi described the American decision as a “source of pride” for those working in the Iranian media sector, considering that the media performance during the past year and a half, since the outbreak of the war, had reached a level of influence that prompted Washington to prevent the team from traveling, and he thanked local media institutions for this “success.”
On the operational level, the Iranian official acknowledged that the absence of the media team would exacerbate the difficulty of covering Pezeshkian’s agenda, stressing at the same time that the presidential office would make every effort to cover the visit’s activities, and called on the Iranian media to provide support and participate in covering it to the extent possible.
