News / Politics

New US visa law breaches Europe independence: Iran FM

Monday, 21 December 2015 8:06 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 21 December 2015 10:10 PM ]

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (L) shakes hands with French Senate President Gerard Larcher in Tehran on December 21, 2015. © IRNA

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says a new US legislation to tighten visa-free travel to the United States breaches Europe’s independence.

“The legislation is against Europe’s independence and the spirit of the law lays down the approach that whoever is siding with terrorists is immune,” Zarif said in a meeting with French Senate President Gerard Larcher in Tehran on Monday.

He urged European countries “to express their independent resolve” in the face of such discriminatory approaches.

For more than 25 years, the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) allowed people from 38 countries, namely European states, Australia, Japan and South Korea, to travel to the US without applying for a visa.

However, US President Barack Obama on Saturday signed a USD-1.1-trillion funding bill that aims to exclude from the VWP all dual nationals from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan, and anyone else who has traveled to those countries in the past five years. Such foreign nationals are now required to obtain a visa through standard measures, including face-to-face interview at a US consulate.

Zarif further said extremists and Takfiri groups have turned into common threats to Iran, France and the entire region, and emphasized that regional crises should only be settled through political means.

The French Senate president, for his part, said his country welcomes the improvement of ties with Iran and that the French Senate “will take appropriate action” with regard to the US legislation.

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