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Russia expects UN head to play active part in solving visa issue — diplomat

the United States did not grant visas to one-third of the Russian delegation to the session of the UN First Committee on disarmament issues

© Valery Sharifulin/TASS

UN, October 8. /TASS/. Moscow expects UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to play an active role in settling the situation regarding the non-issuance of US visas to members of certain national UN delegations, including Russia, the country's deputy envoy to UN, Gennady Kuzmin, told reporters on Monday.

"We are quite interested in UN Secretary-General taking an active role in solving this problem," he said. "We expect this to be heard by UN Secretary-General, that he would consider making use of the prerogative vested on him by the agreement on UN headquarters, which includes, among other things, consultations with the host nation, up to arbitration between the US and UN."

Speaking about the suspension until Tuesday of the UN General Assembly Sixth Committee, one of six main committees which deals primarily with legal matters, the Russian diplomat said: "The program of work is adopted by a consensus. There have been none. The Iranian delegation said it was not ready to support the adoption of the work schedule."

"Iran explained its stance by the non-issuance of visas and restriction of movement on the US territory," the deputy Russian envoy said. "Consultations on the issue continue. The main reason is the conduct of the host nation, which did not issue visas to both Iran and Russia, as well as to the Cuban delegation and many others."

Earlier, the General Assembly First Committee, which is dealing with disarmament issues, also suspended its work until Tuesday. "It seems the straw eventually broke the camel’s back," Kuzmin said.

It was reported earlier that the United States did not grant visas to one-third of the Russian delegation to the session of the UN First Committee on disarmament issues. In this context, Russia's First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky suggested moving sessions of the UN First Committee to Vienna or Geneva starting from 2020.

On Monday, UN Secretary General’s deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told TASS the UN Secretariat was concerned by the non-issuance of visas and favored consultations on the issue with the host nation.

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