US banned Iranian officials in New York from visiting wholesale shopping outlets

The Trump Administration banned Iranian officials in New York from visiting wholesale shopping outlets like Costco. Photo / Getty Images

The Trump Administration officially banned Iranian officials in New York from visiting wholesale shopping outlets such as Costco, Sam’s Club or BJ’s Wholesale Club this week, marking an unusual act of pressure on diplomats during annual high-level meetings at the United Nations.

In a notice to the Federal Register published today, the United States Administration ordered that Iranian officials who worked at the New York-based mission to the UN and officials who travel for UN-related work would be barred from having membership of the wholesale outlets or otherwise purchasing from the outlets.

The notice also said that Iranian officials would have to obtain permission from the State Department’s Office of Foreign Missions if they wanted to buy luxury goods while in the US.

“We will not allow the Iranian regime to allow its clerical elites to have a shopping spree in the US while they force their own people in Iran to endure poverty and dire shortages of basic needs,” State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement posted to X.

In a separate notice to the Federal Register, luxury goods were defined as goods worth over US$1000 ($1708), and it included a long list of examples including wristwatches, leather goods, perfumes, and fountain pens. Vehicles worth over US$60,000 were also classified as luxury purchases.

The Iranian Mission to the United Nations declined to comment. There are several wholesale shopping outlets in New York City and the surrounding areas, including a Queens-based outlet of Costco that is less than 8km by road from the Iranian diplomatic headquarters in Manhattan.

As host to the UN, the US allows multiple countries with which it does not have formal diplomatic relations to maintain missions and travel to New York City.

However, these nations, as well as some others, face restrictions on their travel within the US.

Diplomats from Belarus, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and Venezuela are all required to inform the State Department if they travel farther than 40km from Columbus Circle in Manhattan or 40km of the White House if they have representation in Washington DC.

The Trump Administration said last month it would be denying or revoking visas for members of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organisation before the UN General Assembly but said it would grant waivers to the Palestinian Authority’s Mission to the UN.

The restrictions meant that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas appeared via video link yesterday for a conference on Palestinian statehood backed by France and Saudi Arabia.

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