President Donald Trump’s administration has banned Iranian diplomats from shopping at wholesale club stores and purchasing luxury goods while in America for the UN General Assembly.
Newsweek reported that the Iranian diplomats love Costco because they can purchase items in bulk that they can’t buy in Iran.
The rule applies to Iranian diplomats who represent the country at the UN all year.
According to The Associated Press, the diplomats need permission from the State Department:
In notices to be published this week in the Federal Register, the department’s Office of Foreign Missions determined that diplomatic memberships in wholesale club stores as well as diplomats’ ability to buy items such as watches, furs, jewelry, handbags, wallets, perfumes, tobacco, alcohol and cars are a “benefit” requiring U.S. government approval.However, the only country whose diplomats were specifically targeted is Iran. Stores like Costco have been a favorite of Iranian diplomats posted to and visiting New York because they are able to buy large quantities of products not available in their economically isolated country for relatively cheap prices and send them home.—The determinations, which were posted online Monday and to be printed Tuesday, said Iranian diplomats and their dependents must “obtain approval from the Department of State prior to: obtaining or otherwise retaining membership at any wholesale club store in the United States, to include but not limited to Costco, Sam’s Club, or BJ’s Wholesale Club, and acquiring items from such wholesale club stores through any means.”In addition, Iranian diplomats in the U.S. must also receive permission to purchase luxury items valued at more than $1,000 and vehicles valued at more that $60,000, said Clifton Seagroves, the head of the Office of Foreign Missions.
Those luxury items include everything, including fountain pens.
I had no idea those pens could be that expensive. I found one for $1,460!
Iranian nationals also cannot travel beyond a 25-mile radius of New York City.
That rule also applies to Belarus, China, Cuba, Eritrea, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and Venezuela.
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