"We’ve raised this travel with senior Russian Foreign Ministry officials," said Mark Toner, the deputy State Department spokesman, the report says.
He added that Russia had not responded to the American complaint, but he underscored that the United States would ask the United Nations Security Council to investigate the trip.
"We intend to work with the Security Council to ensure that there is a full, thorough, adequately run investigation, as well as sufficient follow-up," Toner said.
The Iranian general at the heart of the complaint is Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, an operative who has the backing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. General Suleimani has been directing Iran’s military support for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and for Shiite militias in Iraq, and is believed to be directing Tehran’s backing for Houthi rebels in Yemen.
A Security Council resolution adopted in 2007 calls for a travel ban on General Suleimani and other Iranian officials because of their links to Iran’s nuclear or ballistic missile programs. That ban is to be lifted after eight years, according to the accord that was negotiated last month on Iran’s nuclear program.
