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Sudanese officials fought back Tuesday against recent criticisms from the United States about their president’s planned attendance to the United Nations’s General Assembly next week. A Sudanese official said that the U.S. has a “known record in committing war crimes and genocide,” and is not qualified to “offer sermons and advice on human rights.”

These remarks were made after U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power released a statement about Sudanese President Oman Hassan al-Bashir’s visa entry request.

“Such a trip would be deplorable, cynical and hugely inappropriate,” said, Power, who confirmed that the United States had received a visa application from Bashir. “It would be more appropriate for him to present himself to the ICC and travel to The Hague.” 

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf also released a statement, condemning Bashir’s visa entry request. 

“Any potential effort by President Bashir to travel to New York, given that he stands accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court,” said Harf. 

Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2009 and 2010 for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in connection with the conflict in the western region of Darfur. 

Sudan’s Foreign Ministry retorted these statements, saying that the U.S. is not qualified to provide “sermons” on human rights, and accusing the U.S. of committing war crimes in Iraq. 

The ministry called the United States “the protector and supporter of the biggest violator of human rights and perpetrator of crimes against humanity and war crimes, the worst ever in the world, which is Israel.” 

As the host for the upcoming U.N. General Assembly, the U.S. is obligated to grant entry visas for leaders it considers illegitimate or worse. There have been exceptions to this in the past, but whether or not Bashir will be granted visa entry remains uncertain. 

“We confirm that he’s put in a request. I’m not just going to probably go any further today,” Harf said. “As host nation of the United Nations, we are generally — I’m not speaking in this case specifically, but generally — obligated to admit foreign nationals traveling to U.N. headquarters for official U.N. business.”

The U.N. General Assembly will meet next week in New York. 

Contact Executive Producer Vanessa Wilkins here