TEHRAN, Sept. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Iranian Majlis (Parliament) Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel has cancelled his visit to the United States for a UN conference due to his visa delay, the official IRNA newsagency reported Wednesday.

    Adel originally planned to attend a Second World Conference of Speakers of Parliament at the UN's New York headquarters on Sept.7-9.

    However, he called off his visit Tuesday afternoon after being informed that his visa delivery was delayed, said the report. 

    "The speaker has decided, with dignity, not to go to the United States," IRNA quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi assaying Tuesday evening.

    Asefi said that the US authorities were informed of Adel's planned visit two months earlier but showed some degree of reluctance and "contradictory information" on the visa delivery.

    After Tehran's protest against Washington's behavior, the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, who also serves as the representative of the US interests in Iran, officially informed Iranian officials on Monday that the visa would be delivered on Tuesday, Asefi said. 

    But when Iranian officials went to the Swiss embassy to obtain the visa, they were told that it would finally be delivered on Wednesday, the spokesman added.

    "Tehran believes the Americans' attitude has been insulting and uncivilized," Asefi stressed.

    Asefi further described the incident as "ugly" and "unacceptable," saying that Washington could not "take hostage international organizations."

    Iran and the United States have severed relations since 1979 when a group of Iranian students took over the US embassy in Tehran and held 52 people hostage for 444 days.

    On Aug. 11, Washington said that Iranian President Mahmood Ahmadinejad would be given a US visa to attend the UN General Assembly meetings in New York in mid-September.

    The United States previously said that it had to review Ahmadinejad's visa request because Washington had been looking into allegations that the new Iranian president played a role in the 1979 siege of the US embassy.  Enditem