The United States banned Iranian diplomats from shopping at Costco and other wholesale club stores while visiting the United Nations General Assembly.

While the U.S. and Iran don’t have diplomatic relations, sanctions on diplomats are waived to allow all to attend the U.N. General Assembly. The State Department is ensuring that Iranian diplomats who are permitted into the country for the occasion can’t indulge in American luxuries without government approval.

Recommended Stories

• Russia extends nuclear pact limits for another year to 'maintain' status quo
• Kemp traveling to South Korea after Hyundai immigration raid
• Dominican Republic confirms boat destroyed by US was carrying 2,000 pounds of cocaine

“The United States took action this week to impose maximum pressure on the Iranian regime by restricting their UNGA delegation’s movement and access to wholesale club stores and luxury goods. We will not allow the Iranian regime to allow its clerical elites to have a shopping spree in New York while the Iranian people endure poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and dire shortages of water and electricity,” State Department principal deputy spokesman Thomas Pigott said in a statement.

He added that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would restrict the Iranian delegation’s travel to areas “strictly necessary to transit to and from the U.N. headquarters” to conduct official business. The move was intended to prevent Tehran from using the UNGA “as an excuse to travel freely in New York to promote its terrorist agenda.”

“When the United States says it stands with the people of Iran, we mean it,” Pigott continued, saying the action reflected Washington’s “unwavering commitment to supporting the Iranian people in their pursuit of accountability for the regime and for a better life,” Pigott said.

Costco is known as a favorite of Iranian diplomats visiting New York City, allowing access to products absent from shelves in the economically isolated nation, according to the Associated Press. Costco was specifically named in a Federal Register notice, along with Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club.

EUROPEAN COUNTRIES SAY IRAN HASN’T TAKEN ‘REASONABLE’ ACTION TO STOP IMPLEMENTATION OF SANCTIONS

Some of the luxury items banned from Iranian purchase, barring special government permission, include watches, furs, jewelry, handbags, wallets, perfumes, tobacco, alcohol, and cars.

Iran’s economic troubles have reached new heights this year amid a return to Trump’s maximum pressure strategy and its brief war with Israel in June. Inefficient agricultural projects, overextraction, and corruption have drained the country’s reservoirs, restricting many citizens’ access to water.