New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration apparently thought it would be totally fine and normal for a city official to quietly schedule a sit-down with Iran's United Nations ambassador. You know, Iran. The country that funds global terrorism, has killed thousands of Americans, and regularly threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Just a casual Monday morning meeting, nothing to see here.
As USA Journal reported, the story was originally broken by City Journal: Commissioner Ana María Archila, Mamdani's top official for international affairs, had a meeting on the books with Iran's UN Ambassador Amir-Saeid Iravani for July 7th at 11 a.m. Two other senior Mamdani officials were on the calendar invite. The State Department was not informed, because apparently nobody in the Mamdani administration thought the federal government might want a heads up when city employees start penciling in appointments with representatives of hostile foreign nations.
The meeting only got canceled after federal officials found out, pulled the Mamdani team aside, and explained (reportedly requiring some elaboration) that this is not how things work. Archila was reprimanded, and Mamdani's office is now insisting the mayor had no idea the meeting was even scheduled.
So let's think about this. Either the mayor of New York City has such a loose grip on his own administration that senior officials are freelancing meetings with Iran without telling him, or he knew and is now pretending he didn't. Pick your favorite option. They both stink.
This is the same mayor who vowed to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he ever steps foot in New York City. The democratically elected leader of America's closest ally in the Middle East. Arrest him. Meanwhile, Iran gets an 11 a.m. coffee chat. The priorities here are really something.
It is also not an isolated incident. Last month, Mamdani's team planned a meeting with Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who attended a Mamdani rally back in September. The State Department declined to issue Petro a visa, and that meeting also got scrapped. Archila also took a two-day taxpayer-funded trip to Barcelona to attend a conference hosted by the Party of European Socialists. So the international affairs commissioner is doing plenty of international affairs, just not the kind most New Yorkers probably had in mind.
This is also the same Mamdani who claimed he had been "briefed" on the Venezuela operation, then had to embarrassingly admit he holds no federal security clearance whatsoever. He called the Iran strikes "an illegal act of war." He wants to lock up Netanyahu. And his people were on their way to a quiet chat with Tehran's representative at the UN.
The State Department caught this one. The really fun question is how many they haven't caught. Running a city is apparently too boring when you can cosplay as your own State Department instead.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
