| The United States has denied a visa to Iran's UN ambassador in Geneva, Ali Reza Moaiyeri, to attend next week's ministerial meeting of the UN General Assembly because he was involved in the 1979 US hostage crisis, a UN official said Wednesday. Militant students stormed the US Embassy in Tehran that year after the Islamic revolution and held US diplomats hostage for 444 days. The US broke diplomatic ties with Teheran and the episode sealed Iran as the principal US adversary in the Middle East. It was not clear what role Moaiyeri played in the hostage crisis and a call to Iran's UN Mission seeking comment was not immediately returned. |