TEHRAN: Iran criticized the recently announced U.S. travel ban affecting Iranians and citizens from 11 other nations, primarily in the Middle East and Africa, labeling the move as indicative of a "racist mindset."
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order reinstating broad travel restrictions reminiscent of his earlier ban, citing national security concerns following a firebombing that occurred at a pro-Israel rally in Colorado.
Alireza Hashemi-Raja, the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s director general for the affairs of Iranians abroad, described the policy, set to begin on June 9, as a "clear indication of the prevalence of a supremacist and racist mentality among American officials." He further asserted that the ban "exposes the deep-seated animosity" of U.S. policymakers toward both Iranian and Muslim communities.
In addition to Iran, the travel restrictions extend to nationals from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. There are also partial restrictions applied to travelers from several other countries.
Hashemi-Raja stated that this policy "contradicts fundamental principles of international law" and unfairly restricts "hundreds of millions from exercising their right to travel due solely to their nationality or religion." He emphasized that such discriminatory actions would lead to "international accountability for the U.S. government," although he did not elaborate further.
The United States and Iran have had no diplomatic relations since the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, resulting in consistently strained interactions. Currently, the U.S. hosts the largest Iranian population outside of Iran, with estimates from Iran’s foreign ministry suggesting about 1.5 million Iranians lived in the U.S. as of 2020.
This latest executive order follows the Colorado rally incident, which resulted in injuries to over a dozen individuals. The suspect in the attack is an Egyptian man who allegedly overstayed his tourist visa.
