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The United States has barred Iranian diplomats in New York for the U.N. General Assembly from shopping at wholesale clubs and buying luxury goods, the State Department said Monday.
State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Iranian diplomats are restricted “to the areas strictly necessary to transit to and from the U.N. headquarters district to conduct their official U.N. business.”
Iranian officials, including those at Iran’s U.N. mission in New York, must obtain approval before holding memberships or purchasing items “at any wholesale club store in the United States, to include but not be limited to Costco, Sam’s Club, or BJ’s Wholesale Club.”
They also must seek permission to purchase “luxury items” worth more than $1,000, including watches, jewelry, perfumes, leather and silk clothing, furs, electronics, alcohol and cars valued above $60,000.
Pigott said stores like Costco have often been frequented by Iranian diplomats seeking goods scarce in Iran but cheaper in the United States.
“We will not allow the Iranian regime to allow its clerical elites to have a shopping spree in New York while the Iranian people endure poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and dire shortages of water and electricity,” Pigott said.
He added that the restrictions are intended to “send a clear message: When the United States says it stands with the people of Iran, we mean it.”
In addition to restrictions on Iran’s delegation, Washington blocked visas for Palestinian Authority officials, including President Mahmoud Abbas, preventing them from attending a U.N. two-state solution conference on Monday.
The General Assembly recently adopted a resolution allowing Abbas to address the annual gathering of world leaders by video link after the U.S. denied him a visa.
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