Washington conditions on Zarif releasing US citizens " wrongly detained" for free movement in New York

The United States has barred the Iranian regime's foreign minister, who is in New York to attend the UN General Assembly, from visiting an Iranian diplomat hospitalized in the city.

US authorities have restricted Iranian Regime Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to just six blocks in New York.

The US State Department has said it would allow Zarif to visit Iranian Ambassador to the UN Majid Takht Ravanchi if the Iranian regime released one of several US citizens it “wrongfully detained.”

Ravanchi is currently undergoing cancer treatment in a New York hospital.

On September 28, Zarif tweeted that he had communicated with Ravanchi by video call.

"Thanks to technology, I was able to see and talk to my friend of 40 years and our UN ambassador Ravanchi, who is in hospital here in New York only a few blocks away," he said.

The spat comes amid heightened tension between the Iranian regime and Washington following US President Donald Trump's decision over a year ago to unilaterally pull out of a nuclear deal with Iran.

The United States has imposed sanctions that have kept Iran from selling its oil abroad and have crippled its economy.