Iran Furious At ‘Racist’ US Travel Ban Targeting Muslim Nations

At a moment both sides are still engaged in highly sensitive nuclear negotiations, Iran has strongly condemned US President Donald Trump’s new travel ban, blasting it as “racist” and indicative of Washington’s deep hostility toward Iranians and Muslims.

The executive order restricts travel from 19 countries, primarily in Africa and the Middle East, in a new ‘Muslim travel ban’ of sorts – given it mirrors similar policies from Trump’s first term in office, and will take effect Monday. There are outright bans imposed on a dozen of the nations.

Iranian official Alireza Hashemi-Raja criticized the move as reflecting a “supremacist and racist mentality” among American policymakers.

According to more via Al Jazeera:

Hashemi-Raja argued that the policy breaches international legal norms and denies millions the basic right to travel, based solely on nationality or faith. He said the ban would “entail international responsibility for the US government”, without elaborating.

The ban heavily features Mideast and North African countries like Iran, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, and others – but is not limited to countries with Muslim majority populations.

Among the countries listed are also Myanmar, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti. There are ‘partial bans’ and some new visa restrictions for Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

President Trump had explained this week in a statement posted to the White House: “The United States must ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the United States do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists or other threats to our national security.”

And further:

I directed the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence, to identify countries throughout the world for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a full or partial suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries pursuant to section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1182(f).  After completing that process, the Secretary of State determined that a number of countries remain deficient with regards to screening and vetting. Many of these countries have also taken advantage of the United States in their exploitation of our visa system and their historic failure to accept back their removable nationals. 

Interestingly, Syria was on the controversial ban during Trump’s first term, but is notably absent this time around – despite the fact that the decade-plus long proxy war saw foreign jihadists flow there from around the world. There are even foreign jihadists who hold government positions in the Jolani (Sharaa) regime, in the wake of Assad’s December ouster.