Iran Bars CNN's Amanpour from Visiting

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October 09, 2002 06:03 AM ET Email this article Printer friendly version Purchase for Reprint

Click here to find out more! TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran barred Christiane Amanpour, CNN's chief international correspondent, from entering the country with journalists accompanying British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, British diplomats said on Wednesday.

Iranian officials gave no reason for excluding Amanpour, who is half Iranian and half British.

In London, a CNN spokeswoman said the company had received no explanation or comment from the Iranian government.

"We find the Iranian government decision to ban Christiane inexplicable and unjustified," spokeswoman Suzanna Flood said.

A British diplomat in Tehran told Reuters: "The facts are that the Iranians do not want her to come into the country and she has had to get off the plane in Kuwait."

"They have an exclusion order against her, and they have refused to reconsider it for this trip," the diplomat added.

Straw was due to arrive in Tehran at 5:30 a.m. EDT on the last leg of a four-nation Middle East trip to seek support for a tougher United Nations resolution on Iraq.

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2002


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