Visa waiver program to deepen distrust of US: Shamkhani

A senior Iranian official says the new US legislation to tighten visa-free travel to the United States will deepen the distrust of Washington and negatively affect the implementation of the July 14 nuclear agreement between Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries.

Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani said on Monday that the recently devised visa restrictions in the US will have “irreversible effects” on the implementation of the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Certain measures and decisions including the recently devised visa restrictions in the US “will definitely increase misunderstanding and distrust and can have irreversible effects on the process of the implementation of the JCPOA,” Shamkhani said in a meeting with visiting President of the French Senate Gerard Larcher in Tehran.

The nuclear agreement was reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries – the United States, Britain, France, China, and Russia plus Germany – in the Austrian capital of Vienna on July 14.

On Saturday, Washington passed a law affecting its Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which normally exempts nationals from 38 countries from having to obtain visas to visit the United States. As a result of the changes, the program no longer includes dual nationals from Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Sudan, and anyone else who has traveled to those countries in the past five years.

The US has sought to reassure Iran that the law will not come in the way of the implementation of America’s commitments under the JCPOA with the Islamic Republic.

On Sunday, US Secretary of State John Kerry wrote a letter to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad  Zarif, saying the visa changes “will not in any way prevent us from meeting our JCPOA commitments.”

Shamkhani said in the meeting with Larcher that the JCPOA has prepared the ground for dialog instead of hostility and conflict, calling on both sides of the deal to safeguard the achievements of the agreement.

Stating that the JCPOA has opened a new chapter in relations between Iran and France, Shamkhani said that taking “common and constructive steps” for the restoration of trust is a starting point in the establishment of new ties on the basis of mutual respect and national interests of the two nations.

The Iranian official further expressed regret over the November 13 terrorist attacks in the French capital of Paris, which killed some 130 people, calling for concerted global effort to fight terrorism that has posed a threat to the security in Europe, the US, West Asia and parts of Africa.

Shamkhani also criticized certain countries for spreading terrorism by adopting wrong policies and using terrorism as a tool, saying that eradicating the root causes of terrorism and the causes promoting it is a main step in countering the menace.

Larcher, for his part, described the Islamic Republic as a center of stability in the West Asia region, calling for closer political and security cooperation between Tehran and Paris.

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