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US Rejects Request From Iran's Zarif to Visit UN Envoy in New York Hospital
Unless Prisoner Released

Reuters

   UNITED NATIONS - The United States rejected a request by Iranian
   Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to visit Iran's United Nations
   ambassador in a New York hospital where he is being treated for cancer,
   the U.S. State Department and Iranian U.N. mission said on Friday.

   A U.S. State Department spokesperson said Zarif's request would be
   granted if Iran released one of several American citizens it had
   detained.

   In July the United States imposed tight travel restrictions on Zarif
   before a visit that month to the United Nations, as well as on Iranian
   diplomats and their families living in New York, which Zarif described
   as "basically inhuman."

   Unless they receive prior approval from Washington, they are only
   allowed to travel within a small area of Manhattan, Queens and to and
   from John F. Kennedy airport.

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