LOC23:16
20:16 GMT
WASHINGTON, April 18 (KUNA) -- US President Barack Obama signed Friday into law an Act concerning visa limitations for certain representatives to the UN.
The law, referred to as S. 2195, amends current law to deny admission to the US to any representative to the UN who the President determines has been "engaged in terrorist activity against the United States or its allies and may pose a threat to US national security interests."
Obama said in a statement that S. 2195 "amends section 407 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1990 and 1991, to provide that no individual may be admitted to the United States as a representative to the United Nations, if that individual has been found to have been engaged in espionage or terrorist activity directed against the United States or its allies, and if that individual may pose a threat to United States national security interests."
He added as President George Bush observed in signing the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1990 and 1991, this provision "could constrain the exercise of my exclusive constitutional authority to receive within the United States certain foreign ambassadors to the United Nations.
"Acts of espionage and terrorism against the United States and our allies are unquestionably problems of the utmost gravity, and I share the Congress's concern that individuals who have engaged in such activity may use the cover of diplomacy to gain access to our Nation," he stressed.
He noted "nevertheless, as President Bush also observed, "curtailing by statute my constitutional discretion to receive or reject ambassadors is neither a permissible nor a practical solution."
Last week, the US Administration announced that it has informed the UN and Iran that it will not issue a visa to Tehran's UN envoy pick Hamid Aboutalebi, over concerns of his link to the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran. (end)
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