Press TV - The 120-member nations of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) have strongly opposed Washington's refusal to issue Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif a visa to attend an upcoming United Nations Security Council meeting.

The NAM countries voiced their opposition to the US move in a statement on Saturday by citing paragraph 24.6 of the final document adopted at their 18th summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, last April.

The document states that the US visa denial constitutes an outright violation of the terms of a 1947 UN Headquarters agreement which requires Washington to allow foreign officials into the country for UN affairs.

"The Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) strongly rejects the denial of the issuance of the entry visa by the Government of the United States to Mohammad Javad Zarif, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, to attend the United Nations Security Council Meeting at the invitation of the current President of the Security Council scheduled for 9 January 2020 as a flagrant violation of the provisions of the United Nations Headquarters Agreement as well as international law," the NAM said in the statement.

"The Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) calls upon all countries hosting United Nations and other international meetings to abide by their obligations to issue, without discrimination and undue delay, entry visas to member country delegations in accordance with the host country agreements,� it added.

Zarif earlier said US statesmen were vastly terrified of someone going to their country and conveying the truth to the American people.

The top Iranian diplomat explained that his ministry had "weeks ago" requested a visa to take part in the January 9 Security Council meeting on the importance of upholding the UN Charter, rejecting as false claims by American officials that they did not have time to process the application.

Zarif said the move was indicative of the moral�bankruptcy of the US administration and President Donald Trump's team.

The Security Council meeting would have given Zarif a global spotlight to publicly criticize the United States for assassinating General Qassem Soleimani, which has prompted an outpouring of public anger worldwide.

Zarif last traveled to New York in September for the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations after the US imposed sanctions on him in August for what Iran called �great fear� of his eloquent delivery of the Iranian nation�s message to the world.