Three US lawmakers ask to visit Iran to observe elections

Baku. 5 February. REPORT.AZ/ Seeking to keep tabs on what they called a "fanatical regime," three US lawmakers applied Thursday for visas to Iran to observe this month's elections, visit nuclear sites and meet with Revolutionary Guards, Report informs referring to the Iranian media.

The unlikely approval of the visas would mark a startling development in Washington-Tehran ties, following completion of a landmark nuclear deal last year which saw sanctions lifted against the country.

Republicans Mike Pompeo, Lee Zeldin and Frank LoBiondo hand-delivered their applications to the Iranian Interests Section in Washington, and wrote to the Islamic republic's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, seeking their assistance.

"We look forward to seeing Iranian democracy in action" during the February 26 parliamentary election, the trio wrote in their letter, a copy of which was posted on Pompeo's website.

Tensions have risen within Iran over the elections, with President Hassan Rouhani criticizing moves to exclude thousands of candidates, mostly reformists sidelined from Iranian politics since the disputed 2009 re-election of hardline conservative president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.