“We are considering no alternative to replace Mr. [Hamid] Aboutalebi and we are pursuing the issue through legal mechanisms,” said Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Seyyed Abbas Araqchi on Saturday.

On Friday, the White House said it had communicated to Iran and the UN that the US would not issue Aboutalebi a visa.

The announcement came a day after the US House of Representatives unanimously approved a legislation that prevents Aboutalebi from entering the United States.

The bill, sponsored by Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, was passed by the Democratic-controlled Senate through voice vote on April 7.

The legislation will be sent to the White House for President Barack Obama signature in order to take effect.

Iran has rejected the US measure as unacceptable and says it will follow up on the issue through diplomatic channels at the United Nations.

The UN regulations stipulate that each country is allowed to select its own representatives at the international organization and the US, as the host country, must grant visa to the appointed diplomats.

Washington has decided to deny a visa to Aboutalebi over his alleged involvement in the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran by university students that had warned against American efforts to overthrow the country’s nascent Islamic Republic in 1979 following the historic Islamic Revolution that ousted the US-backed dictatorship of Pahlavi dynasty.

On November 4, 1979, the student group, describing themselves as ‘students following the path of the Imam [Rohoullah Khomeini],’ who led the revolution and founded the Islamic Republic, took over the US Embassy in Tehran, referring to it as “the den of espionage.”

Documents later found at the US diplomatic compound later corroborated the students’ earlier claims that Washington had indeed engaged in plotting to overthrow the new Islamic system in Iran.

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