US quietly expelled Iran’s deputy UN envoy in December, report says

The Biden administration quietly expelled Iran’s deputy United Nations envoy from New York in December, citing national security concerns, Axios reported Friday, citing US and informed sources. The diplomat, Saadat Aghajani, was notified in early December to leave the country after the State Department sent a formal notice to Iran’s UN mission. The request was made under “section 13 procedures,” an internal mechanism that arranges a diplomat’s departure without formally declaring them persona non grata—a move that avoids public confrontation while still removing the individual.

Travel restrictions violated

The report noted that at least two other Iranian diplomats at the UN mission had been expelled in the two months prior to Aghajani’s departure. In September, US authorities restricted Iranian diplomats’ travel to a 25-mile radius around central Manhattan, and at least one of the expelled diplomats had violated those limits multiple times. A US official said Aghajani’s children, who remained in New York after his departure, were also asked to leave the country in February. No specific allegations against Aghajani were made public.

Background and Türkiye’s position

A State Department official confirmed that a Note Verbale was delivered on December 4 regarding the status of certain Iranian personnel at the UN but declined to comment on specifics, citing privacy and security reasons. The official added that the move took place “well before the protests in Iran” and was unrelated to those events. For Türkiye, which hosts a large diplomatic community and often finds itself navigating US-Iran tensions, the quiet expulsion underscores Washington’s continued scrutiny of Iranian diplomatic activities even amid the broader military conflict. Ankara continues to advocate for diplomatic channels to remain open, warning that such expulsions, while legal, can further erode communication between adversaries.