KUN0153 4 GEN 0365 FRANCE /AFP -RJB3 PPL-US-IRAN-TRAVEL US concerned about presence of Iranian official in Washington WASHINGTON, April 24 (KUNA) -- The United States did not foresee the possibility of an Iranian official who has a green card entering the United States legally and meeting with people in Washington, said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday. The presence of the Iranian diplomat who freely entered the United States came to light when reporters asked the State Department about the issue during a press briefing. Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor the State Department was aware of his presence in the United States before that. "We were very concerned when we learned about it," Rice told reporters while en route to Greece. Rice said that the issue is of concern to the United States and is being look into by several government agencies because Mohammad Nahavandian, an economics and technology aide to Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, is here legally on a green card. "It is not the kind of thing that I think that anybody foresaw," conceded Rice. The United States has to be "true to both the requirements of what it means to be a green card status and to be true to the policy considerations of this rather anomalous condition in which you have someone with which the United States does not actually have diplomatic relations but is a very high ranking diplomat inside the United States," Rice said. Nahavandian has been a legal permanent resident of the United States since 1993, but because of his status with the Iranian government he may lose his green card due to US laws that consider the Islamic Republic a sponsor of terrorism. The United States, which has not had diplomatic relations with Iran for over three decades, does not allow Iranian officials to visit the country unless it is within the perimeters of an official trip to the United Nations headquarters in New York. "We are going to try to make certain that we understand the facts, understand the legal basis and then we will take appropriate action," said Rice, warning that the sticky situation with Nahavandian will take time to sort out. (end) ayt.ajs KUNA 250033 Apr 06NNNN