Iran says top diplomat to attend UN despite visa doubts

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran says its foreign minister will attend next week’s United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, amid doubts about whether the U.S. would give him a visa.

The semi-official ISNA news agency says Mohammad Javad Zarif will travel on Friday. As host country of the U.N., the U.S. is required to issue the visas.

Abbas Mousavi, spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, made the announcement Thursday evening.

Tension between the U.S. and Iran has escalated with the weekend attack on oil installations in Saudi Arabia, which alleged the attack was “unquestionably sponsored by Iran.”

Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed it was in response to the yearslong Saudi-led war there.