Iran’s Zarif: Proposed US Visa Waiver Changes ‘Absurd’
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif deplored recent proposed changes to the US Visa Waiver Program that could require European travelers who had visited Iran to apply for a visa to travel to the United States.
“We will have to wait and see,” Zarif told Al-Monitor in an interview at Iran’s ambassadorial residence in New York on December 18, regarding whether US-Iran ties would ease up a bit after anti-Tehran sanctions are lifted when the Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is implemented as early as January.
“Unfortunately, there are mixed signals coming from Washington, mostly negative signals, including the Visa Waiver Program restrictions” proposed in a Congressional omnibus spending bill, Zarif said.
“Now we await for the decision by the administration on how it wants to bring itself into compliance with its obligations under JCPOA.”
“I have had discussions with Secretary Kerry and others on this for the past several days since it’s become known that this was the intention,” he added.
“And I wait for them to take action.”
“Now it is clear that this new legislation is simply absurd because no Iranian nor anybody who visited Iran had anything to do with the tragedies that have taken place in Paris or in San Bernardino or anywhere else,” the senior Iranian official said.
“But they’re being the targets. I think it discredits those who pass these legislations, those who adopt them and those who implement them more than anything else. And it sends a very bad signal to the Iranians that the US is bent on hostile policy towards Iran, no matter what," he added.
On December 19, both Houses of the Congress approved a $1.1 trillion spending bill intended to keep government services funded through September 2016. Tucked into this omnibus legislation are provisions that could undermine, on the basis of personal heritage, the ability of many American citizens to travel visa-free to countries in Europe and East Asia.
For more than 25 years, the Visa Waiver Program has allowed people from a select list of countries, currently 38 nations long, to travel to the US without a visa. Those countries, in turn, must reciprocate, allowing Americans the same privilege on their own soil.
The Congress vote will change the deal. People coming from countries covered under the Visa Waiver Program, including people who are citizens of those countries, will now need to get a visa if they are determined to be nationals of Iran, Iraq, Sudan, and Syria, or if they have visited those countries since 2011.