Report: US quietly expels Iranian diplomat at UN in December

Istanbul - The United States expelled Iran’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Saadat Aghajani, in December due to national security reasons, Axios reported on Friday (3/4), citing several sources. Aghajani was asked to leave the country in early December after the US State Department sent an official notification to the Iranian mission at the UN in New York. The request was made through Section 13 procedure — an internal mechanism to regulate the departure of diplomats without officially declaring them persona non grata or unwelcome persons. This procedure is typically used in cases involving national security concerns or activities deemed inconsistent with diplomatic status, although no specific allegations against Aghajani have been made public. Axios reported that at least two other Iranian diplomats had also been expelled in the two months prior to Aghajani’s departure. In September, US authorities restricted Iranian diplomats’ travel to a 25-mile (approximately 40-kilometre) radius around Manhattan. At least one expelled diplomat was known to have violated that boundary several times. At the time, the measure was not announced and was one of at least three expulsions of Iranian diplomats in New York within six months. “We can confirm that the US issued a Verbal Note on 4 December regarding the status of certain Iranian personnel at the UN. For privacy and security reasons, we do not comment on the details of actions taken against diplomatic personnel,” a US State Department official said. The official added that the measures were taken well before the wave of protest actions swept Iran and are not related to those events.