Iranian diplomats in the US are barred from shopping at Costco

NEW YORK - Iranian diplomats and officials visiting the United States will no longer be permitted to shop at Costco or other wholesale retailers without approval from the US State Department, according to new restrictions announced by the Trump administration.

The regulations were published in the Federal Register as diplomats from around the world were in New York this week for the annual United Nations General Assembly. They apply to Iranian officials and any accompanying family members, and also bar them from “acquiring luxury goods” without State Department permission.

The rules tighten long-standing constraints on the activities of visiting officials from Iran, in what experts said was a US effort to further inflame tensions between the Iranian public and political elites – and even to embarrass them over their shopping habits.

“These measures are aimed at exploiting sensitivities in Iranian public opinion,” said Omid Memarian, an expert on Iran at Dawn, a Washington-based research group that focuses on the Middle East. Severe international sanctions, imposed as punitive measures over Iran’s nuclear programme, have created economic hardship for ordinary Iranians and made many basic goods scarce or unaffordable.

“For years, many Iranians have been dissatisfied – and even angry – that large delegations travel with presidents to New York, imposing significant costs on the nation in the midst of sanctions and economic austerity,” Mr Memarian said.

The Federal Register says that the prohibition covers shopping at any “wholesale club store,” listing Costco, Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club as examples.

Iranian officials lashed out at the restrictions, saying that they were inappropriate from the nation that hosts the UN General Assembly.

In recent comments, published in the country’s official news media, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson for Iran, Esmail Baghaei, said that the measures “were unprecedented” and contravened the United States’ obligations as host.

Wholesale retailers like Costco – known for their giant, well-priced selection on everything from wine to televisions – have been seen as a favourite of Iranian diplomats who travel every fall to New York for the General Assembly. There are several Costco locations across New York City, including in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

In past years, images have circulated in Iran showing officials who were visiting New York loading up vehicles with goods, including a television and cereal boxes, apparently to bring back to Iran.

Such images “have only deepened that resentment, underscoring the contrast between ordinary Iranians enduring hardship and officials living comfortably when traveling abroad,” Mr Memarian said.

For years, the State Department has used travel restrictions to curtail the movements of foreign diplomats. Those rules frequently come under scrutiny during the General Assembly, when hundreds of visiting officials – including those from nations with fractious relationships with the United States – descend on New York for several weeks.

Iranian diplomats have often faced some of the most stringent restrictions, and were commonly confined to a 40-km radius of Manhattan’s Columbus Circle. In 2019, the Trump administration tightened those rules, forbidding visiting Iranian diplomats and their families from travelling beyond Kennedy International Airport, the Iranian ambassador’s residence in New York, the Iranian mission to the United Nations or a small radius around the UN complex on Manhattan’s East Side.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, then the Iranian foreign minister, was forbidden from travelling to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 20 blocks north of the United Nations, where the sitting ambassador was undergoing treatment.

The restrictions on shopping are a “symbolic step,” said Mr Ali Vaez, the Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, a research agency.

“It is primarily aimed at deepening the wedge between the Iranian state and society,” he said. It could also be seen as “petty,” he added, for “the superpower who hosts the UN to try to regulate the shopping of its international guests”.

Some past restrictions on visiting foreign officials have been part of an effort to keep tabs on representatives of nations seen as hostile to the United States.

Russian diplomats have long been subject to movement restrictions, and are required to notify State Department officials before travelling outside a pre-approved radius. In 2019, the State Department ordered that Chinese diplomats notify the State Department of any meeting they attend in the United States. NYTIMES