Iran blasts US travel ban citing 'deep hostility' to Iranians and Muslims
Iran on Saturday said the US travel ban on Iranian citizens and 11 other mostly Middle Eastern and African countries was a sign of a 'racist mentality'. The move, which is expected to take place on June 9, is "a clear sign of the dominance of a supremacist and racist mentality among American policymakers," Alireza Hashemi-Raja, the foreign ministry's director general for the affairs of Iranians abroad said in a statement. The decision "indicates the deep hostility of American decision-makers towards the Iranian and Muslim people", Mr Hashemi-Raja said. US President Donald Trump's decision will bar citizens from 12 countries including Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Mr Trump said the list could be revised and new countries could be added. The ban, which Mr Trump said was necessary to protect against "foreign terrorists", is a similar move he implemented during his first term in office from 2017 to 2021, when he barred travellers from seven Muslim-majority nations. The ban has been justified on national security grounds following a firebomb attack at a pro-Israel rally in Colorado. The alleged attacker, Mohamed Soliman, is from Egypt, which is not on the list. Mr Hashemi-Raja said the policy "violates fundamental principles of international law" and deprives "hundreds of millions of people of the right to travel based solely on their nationality or religion". The foreign ministry official said that the ban was discriminatory and would "entail international responsibility for the US government", without elaborating. Since 1979 Iranian revolution, Washington and Tehran severed diplomatic ties and relations have remained deeply strained since. It is known that the US is home to the largest Iranian community outside Iran. According to figures from Tehran's foreign ministry, there were some 1.5 million Iranians in the US in 2020. Mr Trump enacted a so-called Muslim ban during his first term, barring citizens of several Muslim-majority countries and others from entering the US. Travellers from Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen were barred from entry. The policy went through several iterations before it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018. Mr Trump has blamed the immigration policies of former president Joe Biden for rising crime in the country, and he has been swift to issue executive orders, cracking down on people entering the country illegally.
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