NEW YORK – Sudan has called on the United Nations to take legal and institutional steps to ensure that the United States complies with its obligations as host of U.N. headquarters, after Washington failed to issue a visa to Sudanese Sovereignty Council Chairman Abdel Fattah al-Burhan for September’s General Assembly meetings.

Ammar Mohamed Mahmoud, Sudan’s representative to the General Assembly’s Sixth Committee, raised the issue on Friday during discussions on relations with the host country.

He said the 1947 U.N. Headquarters Agreement obliges the United States to facilitate access for representatives of member states regardless of political disagreements or bilateral relations.

Burhan had been scheduled to lead Sudan’s delegation and address the 81st General Assembly on Sept. 24 but did not travel to New York after the visa was not issued. Foreign Minister Mohi El-Din Salem later delivered Sudan’s address on Sept. 28.

Sudan said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres had expressed concern over the visa issue and that the Secretariat had contacted U.S. authorities, but those efforts did not result in Burhan receiving a visa in time.

Reuters reported in September, citing a Sudanese diplomatic source and a Western analyst familiar with the discussions, that issuance of the visa appeared linked to Burhan accepting a U.S.-backed proposal for a 90-day humanitarian truce.

The U.S. State Department did not publicly confirm that such a condition had been imposed.

Sudan’s representative called for the visa case to be formally documented and related correspondence circulated among U.N. member states. He also urged measures to prevent similar incidents and called on the secretary-general to consider activating the dispute-settlement mechanism under Section 21 of the Headquarters Agreement.

General Assembly Resolution 80/172 expressed serious concern over cases involving the denial, non-issuance or delayed issuance of visas to representatives attending U.N. meetings and urged the host country to ensure timely access.

The resolution also asked the secretary-general to give serious consideration to appropriate steps under Section 21 if unresolved host-country issues persisted.

Sudan argued that access to U.N. headquarters is a right arising from international obligations rather than a privilege that can be granted or withheld on political grounds.