--- title: Obama Signs Bill Barring Terrorist Ambassadors description: The bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, is a response to Iran selecting Hamid Aboutalebi as its Ambassador to the United Nations. Aboutalebi allegedly participated 1979 Iranian hostage crisis canonical: https://time.com/68606/terrorist-ambassador-bill-signed-barack-obama/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-18T20:21:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:23:21.455Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama Signs Bill Barring Terrorist Ambassadors og:description: The bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, is a response to Iran selecting Hamid Aboutalebi as its Ambassador to the United Nations. Aboutalebi allegedly participated 1979 Iranian hostage crisis og:url: https://time.com/68606/terrorist-ambassador-bill-signed-barack-obama/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte424e1917b82e004/69868b5f35ba6fccb0c01951/nic6316588.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: IRAN-US-DIPLOMACY-UN-POLITICS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama Signs Bill Barring Terrorist Ambassadors twitter:description: The bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, is a response to Iran selecting Hamid Aboutalebi as its Ambassador to the United Nations. Aboutalebi allegedly participated 1979 Iranian hostage crisis twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte424e1917b82e004/69868b5f35ba6fccb0c01951/nic6316588.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama Signs Bill Barring Terrorist Ambassadors by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Apr 18, 2014 8:21 PM UTC  An undated handout picture released by the official website of the Iranian president on April 11, 2014 shows Tehran's newly appointed UN ambassador Hamid Aboutalebi who has been recently denied a US visa. An undated handout picture released by the official website of the Iranian president on April 11, 2014 shows Tehran's newly appointed UN ambassador Hamid Aboutalebi who has been recently denied a US visa.Handout/AFP/Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Apr 18, 2014 8:21 PM UTC President Barack Obama signed a bill Friday that amends federal law to bar terrorists or others deemed to be threats to the United States entry to the country to serve as Ambassadors to the United Nations. The measure, sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz, was passed in response to Iran selecting Hamid Aboutalebi as its next Ambassador to the UN. Aboutalebi allegedly participated 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. The White House had already announced that a request for a visa for Aboutalebi would be denied. The bill is the freshman senator’s first legislation to be passed by Congress and signed by the president. Obama issued a rare signing statement as he signed the bill into law, saying he, like former President George H.W. Bush on a similar piece of legislation, is concerned it could infringe on his executive authority. “As President Bush also observed, “curtailing by statute my constitutional discretion to receive or reject ambassadors is neither a permissible nor a practical solution.” I shall therefore continue to treat section 407, as originally enacted and as amended by S. 2195, as advisory in circumstances in which it would interfere with the exercise of this discretion.” Iran is protesting the decision to deny Aboutalebi a visa. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/68606/terrorist-ambassador-bill-signed-barack-obama/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/68606/terrorist-ambassador-bill-signed-barack-obama/"},"headline":"Obama Signs Bill Barring Terrorist Ambassadors","datePublished":"2014-04-18T20:21:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:23:21.455Z","description":"The bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. 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