Iran calls Trump's entry ban 'open affront'

Iran's Foreign Ministry censured a decision by the new US government to restrict arrivals from Iran and six other countries as an "open affront" to the Muslims and the Iranians.

"The decision is an open affront against the Iranian nation and the Muslim world and Iran would respond to the US action in kind," Iran's Foreign Ministry said in a statement, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

"The decision by the US includes illegal and irrational expectations which are against international law," said the statement.

"In order to protect the dignity of all the Iranian people inside and outside the country, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran will scrutinize the short-term and long-term outcomes of the decision by the US government on Iranian nationals and will take appropriate consular, legal and political measures," the ministry said.

The visa restrictions run counter to Washington's claims of fighting terrorism and establishing security for the American people, and would be marked in history "as a big gift presented to extremists and their supporters," it added.

The statement also called the decision "injudicious" and "discriminatory" against Muslims, saying it would prepare the grounds for extremist terrorists to spread violence.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday to restrict immigration from countries that he said are "compromised by terrorism."

A White House official later named the restricted countries as Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

--IANS

pgh/