Iranian officials have blasted the U.S.’s decision to partially reinstate a ban on incoming nationals from six majority-Muslim countries, including Iran, arguing it is assisting in the fight against militant groups and has complied with the terms of a 2015 nuclear deal.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took to Twitter Friday to condemn the Supreme Court’s decision this week to allow the White House to prohibit U.S. travel for citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen unless they prove a "credible claim of bona fide relationship” with someone in the U.S.
The travel ban, which originally included Iraq and omitted exemptions for familial or professional relationships, was devised by President Donald Trump, who designated individuals from these six countries in the Middle East and North Africa as credible threats to national security.
Zarif has long been a critic of the ban, especially after Iran received praise Friday from the U.N. and EU for respecting the terms of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). "U.S. now bans Iranian grandmothers from seeing their grandchildren, in a truly shameful exhibition of blind hostility to all Iranians,” Zarif tweeted on his official account.
"The U.N. & entire world say Iran is in full compliance with its commitments, but U.S. visceral hatred of Iran compels it to deny the obvious,” he added, referring to international acknowledgment of Iran’s efforts to denuclearize in exchange for the U.S. rolling back economic sanctions as part of JCPOA.
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif and German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel speak to the media following talks in Berlin, on June 27. Despite its active role in battling the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria as well as receiving international praise for its compliance with a U.S.-led multilateral nuclear deal in 2015, Iran remains a bitter foe of President Donald Trump’s administration, which accuses Tehran of sponsoring terrorism and included it on a list of countries from which citizens are mostly restricted from traveling to the U.S. Sean Gallup/Getty Images
