The United States has rejected the visa application of Islamic Minister Mohamed Shaheem, who was scheduled to represent the Maldives at an important conference in New York.

Shaheem was due to attend the UN summit "High-Level Conference on Two-State Solution for Israel and Palestine."

Two reliable sources told Adhadhu that Shaheem's visa application to the embassy in Sri Lanka was rejected. The embassy did not inform him of the reason for rejection.

Shaheem could not be reached for comment as he did not answer the phone.

A person familiar with the US visa issuance process told the Adhadhu that if a visa application is rejected due to insufficient documents or information, the embassy may give the reason.

But if a visa application is rejected without stating a reason, there may be many reasons for the rejection. These include being on a list monitored by the United States.

Since June, the United States has required visa applicants to keep their social media accounts public. It is unclear whether all of Shaheem's social media accounts have been made publicly visible.