Iran’s first official reaction to Trump visa ban

Iran vowed Saturday to respond to President Donald Trump’s suspension of U.S. visas for citizens of seven countries including the Islamic Republic.

In a statement on the Foreign Ministry website, the government of Iran vowed unspecified retaliatory measures and emphasized that the international community “needs dialogue and cooperation to address the roots of violence and extremism in a comprehensive and inclusive manner.”

The statement promised proportionate legal, consular and political consequences, but it didn’t say what those would be.

“While respecting the American people and distinguishing between them and the hostile policies of the U.S. government, Iran will implement the principle of reciprocity until the offensive U.S. limitations against Iranian nationals are lifted,” a Foreign Ministry statement said.

“The restrictions against travel by Muslims to America… are an open affront against the Muslim world and the Iranian nation in particular and will be known as a great gift to extremists,” said the statement, carried by state media.

President Trump’s executive order, signed Friday, suspends entry into the U.S. for travelers from seven countries with sizable Muslim populations: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The order, which is in effect for at least 90 days, was imposed as a specific counterterrorism measure but its impact has been broadly felt already.

The U.S. ban will make it virtually impossible for relatives and friends of an estimated one million Iranian-Americans to visit the United States

Earlier on Saturday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said it was no time to build walls between nations and criticised steps towards cancelling world trade agreements, without naming Trump.

“Today is not the time to erect walls between nations. They have forgotten that the Berlin wall fell years ago,” Rouhani said in a speech carried live on Iranian state television.

In a series of tweets, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif also made the point even more strongly: “Collective discrimination aids terrorist recruitment by deepening fault-lines exploited by extremist demagogues to swell their ranks,” Zarif said.

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