The United States has denied entry to a former secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization because of his visit to Iran, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported.
According to the report, Javier Solana, a former Spanish foreign minister and ex-secretary general of NATO has been refused a US visa by an electronic authorization system because of his trip to Iran.
Solana, who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal during his time as the EU foreign policy chief, had been due to speak at an event at Washington’s Brookings Institution, but learned he would not be able to enter the US after trying to apply for an electronic visa waiver.
Under the system, those who have visited any of seven blacklisted countries – Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen – on or after 1 March 2011 are barred from receiving the waiver and have to apply for a visa.
“It’s a bit of a mean decision,” Solana told Spain’s Antena 3 TV channel on Monday. “I don’t think it’s good because some people have to visit these complicated countries to keep negotiations alive.”
Solana, who has also served as Spain’s foreign minister, said he had been invited to Iran in 2013 to attend President Hassan Rouhani’s inauguration.
“I went there to represent all those who had been involved in the negotiations,” he said. “I’ll see what I can do to fix this. It’s a computer – an algorithm – and if you’ve been in Iran lately, they take you out of the system. It’s like you don’t exist visa-wise, because you can’t visit the country.”
