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A senior official in New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration planned to meet with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations before the State Department reportedly intervened, and the meeting was canceled.
Commissioner Ana María Archila, leader of the Mamdani administration’s Office of International Affairs, was scheduled to meet with Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Amir-Saeid Iravani, Tuesday, the City Journal first reported.
A U.S. official familiar with the matter confirmed to Fox News Digital that the meeting had been scheduled.
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The reported intervention marks the second known instance in recent weeks in which the Trump administration has stepped in over the Mamdani administration’s contacts with foreign leaders, highlighting growing federal scrutiny of New York City’s international outreach under its new socialist mayor.
The Office for International Affairs coordinates closely with the State Department on many diplomatic matters because of New York City’s role as host to the United Nations.
Once the State Department became aware of the planned meeting, it was called off and State Department officials met with Mamdani officials to clarify acceptable conduct, a State Department official told the City Journal.
The Iranian mission declined to comment on the meeting to Fox News Digital. “That meeting did not take place, it will not take place and I did not know about it until there was a press inquiry regarding it,” Mamdani said during a press conference on Friday.
Pressed on whether he supported such a meeting, he added: “I’ve said that that meeting will not be taking place. Thank you all very much.”
A State Department official told Fox News Digital in a statement: “We appreciate the mayor understanding the value of diplomacy, and for his decision to cancel this meeting. It is unconscionable that a New York City official would even consider meeting with the Iranian Ambassador to the U.N., a man who consistently works to undermine U.S. interests and whitewash his regime’s crimes against the United States, our allies, and Iran’s own citizens.”
Trump has repeatedly said he is “No. 1” on Iran’s “kill list,” and Israel recently shared intelligence with the U.S. president about an Iranian plot to assassinate him, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The reported Iran meeting would mark the second known instance in recent weeks in which the Trump administration intervened over the Mamdani administration’s contacts with foreign officials.
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In June, the Washington Post reported that a planned meeting between Mamdani and Colombian President Gustavo Petro was scrapped after State Department objections. Fox News Digital has asked the State Department to confirm that account.
Archila, the official who planned to meet with the Iranian representative, served as the co-director of New York’s progressive Working Families party prior to her appointment as commissioner. She had no prior diplomatic experience before taking the role, and in 2022 ran for lieutenant governor of New York.
Archila made headlines in 2018 when she confronted former Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., outside a Senate elevator after he announced he would vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
She identified herself as a sexual assault victim and asked him why he would vote to confirm Kavanaugh after hearing the account of Christine Blasey Ford, who claimed Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers. Kavanaugh denied the allegation.
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