The Government of Iran criticized on Saturday (7) the decision of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, to ban the entry of Iranian citizens and 11 other countries in the US. For Tehran, the measure represents a “supremacist and racist mentality” rooted in the US government.
“It is a clear sign of the domination of a supremacist and racist mentality among American legislators,” said Alidity Hashemi-Raja, spokesman for the Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “This decision demonstrates a profound hostility against the Iranians and Muslims,” he added.
According to the Iranian statement, the new presidential decree “violates fundamental principles of international law” by depriving “hundreds of millions of people from the right to travel based only on their nationality or religion”. Hashemi-raja also stated that the decision may lead to “international responsibility” to the US, but it has not detailed possible retaliatory measures.
In addition to Iran, countries such as Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritreia, Haiti, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen are included Seven other countries – Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela – suffered partial restrictions.
By signing the decree, Trump claimed that restrictions are motivated by concerns about national security. “The president is fulfilling his promise to protect Americans from dangerous foreign actors who want to come here and hurt us,” a White House spokesman said.
The text of the measure points out that the affected countries have high irregular permanence rates after the visa maturity and, in some cases, are pointed out as employees of terrorist groups – such as Iran and Yemen. Nations such as Libya and Haiti were included by, according to the US government, lacking central authority capable of adequately monitoring their citizens.
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The new executive order refers to the political controversy of Trump’s first term, when he imposed a veto at the entrance of citizens from seven Muslim countries. The measure was harshly criticized and later revoked by President Joe Biden in 2021. At the time, the Democrat classified the veto as “a spot in national consciousness.”
Diplomatic relations between the US and Iran have been broken since 1979. Last week, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatola Ali Khamenei, rejected an American proposal to resume the nuclear agreement, expanding tension between the two countries.
