TEHRAN — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is set to travel to New York in the coming days to address the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), an annual multilateral diplomatic fixture increasingly overshadowed by Washington’s persistent weaponization of its status as the UN host nation.

During the high-level gathering, scheduled from September 22 to 29 at UN Headquarters, President Pezeshkian is slated to deliver a major address outlining the Islamic Republic’s principled foreign policy doctrine, regional diplomacy, and firm opposition to unilateralism. Alongside his speech before world leaders, the Iranian president is scheduled to conduct a series of bilateral meetings with heads of state and top international dignitaries on the sidelines of the summit.

However, the diplomatic mission has been deliberately hobbled by an array of hostile measures implemented by the US government. Washington has systematically denied visas to the entire Iranian media delegation accompanying the president.

The blanket denial of press credentials marks a sharp and calculated escalation. While US authorities had already begun tightening the noose last year by granting visas to only three Iranian journalists, previous administrations typically allowed press entourages routine access under UN headquarters agreements. Iranian observers emphasize that Washington’s overt obstructionism reflects deep apprehension over the unfiltered projection of Tehran’s regional realities and anti-sanctions discourse to the global public, seeking instead to suppress Iranian journalistic coverage of the summit.

The hostile administrative campaign extends well beyond the press ban. While entry visas were ultimately cleared for President Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and essential members of the core official delegation, Washington has imposed stringent, punitive operational limitations. The Iranian delegation faces severe geographic travel restrictions confining officials strictly to areas in and around the UN precinct, coupled with a series of petty prohibitions on basic commercial transactions and local store memberships.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei strongly censured the hostile maneuvers, dismissing them as “crude propaganda” that lays bare the flawed mindset behind Washington’s decades-long coercive campaign.

In a statement posted on his X account on Friday, Baghaei denounced what he termed “theatrical” US restrictions, arguing that the White House behaves as though the international community lacks both memory and critical judgment.

“It treats the world as if it were Pluribus: a hive in which minds are expected to switch off, eyes lock onto Washington’s lips, and its narrative is swallowed whole,” Baghaei remarked.

The spokesman drew a sharp contrast between the devastating humanitarian toll of Washington’s sweeping economic warfare and the superficial pageantry of its recent administrative curbs. He pointed out the absurdity of US officials boasting about blocking diplomatic wholesale memberships while simultaneously enforcing a brutal economic blockade against over 85 million Iranian civilians.

“They look past the sanctioning of an entire nation’s livelihood, then issue solemn statements about the sanctioning of a store membership card,” Baghaei stressed, adding that such “threadbare” theatrics only highlight the strategic failure of the unlawful war of choice waged against the Iranian nation.