DUBAI — Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Wednesday a new US law putting visa restrictions on Iranians and those who had visited Iran would, if implemented, breach a nuclear deal Tehran had struck with world powers earlier this year.
The new measure passed by the US Congress will prevent visa-free travel to the United States for people who have visited Iran or hold Iranian nationality.
The measure, which President Barack Obama signed into law on Friday, also applies to Iraq, Syria and Sudan, and was introduced as a security measure after Islamic State attacks in Paris and an attack in San Bernardino, California.
Iran says its inclusion on the list is intended to undermine the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.
“If the Congress law is implemented as it is, it would definitely be a breach (of JCPOA),” Zarif was quoted as saying by the Tasnim news agency, speaking at a joint press conference with his Mongolian counterpart, Lundeg Purevsuren.
Zarif said he had raised the issue with US Secretary of State John Kerry at their meeting in New York this month and also in several emails in the last 10 days, hoping that “these measures stop any obstacle in implementation of the JCPOA.”
Appeal to Europeans
Citizens of 38 countries, most of them in Europe, are eligible for waivers under the US Visa Waiver Program. Under the new restrictions, citizens who have visited Iran, Iraq, Syria or Sudan in the last five years, and those who hold dual nationality with one of those countries, are excluded.
In a meeting with French Senate President Gerard Larcher in Tehran on Monday, Zarif called the new US legislation discriminatory and asked Europeans to oppose the law that was “against their independence”. — Reuters
