The United States, which is at loggerheads with Tehran over Iranian nuclear plans, issued a visa on Tuesday to Iran’s former President Mohammad Khatami to visit the United States next week, the State Department said.
State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the visa allowed Khatami to make a private visit that includes giving a speech at Washington’s National Cathedral next week and attending a U.N. conference in New York on Sept. 5 and 6.
The Shiite Muslim cleric would be the most high-profile Iranian to visit Washington since the United States cut diplomatic ties when 52 Americans were being held hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
“The visa for former President Khatami was issued approximately an hour ago and that (issuance of visa) is in keeping with the functions that he had outlined,” Casey told reporters.
Khatami’s reformist government ceded power last year to current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Washington accuses Iran of being the chief “banker” of international terrorism and of attempting to build a nuclear bomb.
Casey said there were no restrictions on Khatami’s travel while in the United States and that U.S. visas were also granted to several members of his entourage.
He said there were no plans for U.S. officials to meet with Khatami.
While the United States views Iran as a state sponsor of terror, Casey said, the United States did not see all of its citizens as “terrorists” themselves.
“This is an opportunity in part for former President Khatami to hear the concerns of the American people,” Casey said. “He is going to get some tough questions.”
The U.N. Security Council has given Tehran until Thursday to freeze uranium enrichment or face possible sanctions, and Casey reiterated a U.S. appeal for Iran to give a positive answer to the U.N. demands.
“There is still time for them to do it,” said Casey of the Aug. 31 deadline.
The United States is pushing hard for tough U.N. action soon after Thursday’s deadline if Iran fails to give up its enrichment program, but China and Russia are likely to balk at sanctions.
Casey declined to give details of possible sanctions.
“The game plan here and the goal here is not to impose sanctions but to change Iranian behavior,” he added.
