Iran Says New US Travel Restrictions Could Violate Nuclear Deal

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Wednesday that a new US law putting visa restrictions on Iranians and those who had visited Iran would, if implemented, breach a nuclear deal Tehran had struck with world powers earlier this year.

The new measure, which President Barack Obama signed into law on Friday, will prevent visa-free travel to the United States for people who have visited Iran or hold Iranian nationality. It also applies to Iraq, Syria, and Sudan. Congress passed the law as a security measure after Islamic State attacks in Paris and an attack in San Bernardino, California.

None of the attackers in either incident were Iranian or had ever visited the country, and Iranian diplomats say its inclusion on the list is nonsensical and intended to undermine the nuclear deal.

"If the Congress law is implemented as it is, it would definitely be a breach," Zarif said at a joint press conference on Wednesday.

Zarif noted that he had raised the issue with US Secretary of State John Kerry at their meeting in New York this month and also in several emails in the last 10 days, hoping that "these measures stop anyobstacle in implementation" of the nuclear deal.

US Secretary of State John Kerry wrote to Zarif on Saturday to assure him Washington remained committed to the JCPOA, noting that the White House can waive the new requirements in individual cases.

Citizens of 38 countries, most of them in Europe, are eligible for waivers under the US Visa Waiver Program. But under the new restrictions, citizens who have visited Iran, Iraq, Syria, or Sudan in the last five years, and those who hold dual nationality with one of those countries, are excluded.

In a meeting with French Senate President Gerard Larcher in Tehran on Monday, Zarif called the new US legislation discriminatory and asked Europeans to oppose the law that was "against their independence." It's expected that European Union countries that participate in the visa waiver program would be under pressure to implement similar restrictions of their own, a move that would effectively cripple the travel options of businessman with links to Iran.

The issue is particularly sensitive for dual-Iranian citizens, many of whom are Iranian citizens by birth — a Frenchman or Englishwoman with an Iranian father, for example, is automatically granted Iranian citizenship. A number of American advocacy groups, including the ACLU and the National Iranian American Council, have also called the statute discriminatory, since it could effectively restrict travel to the US based on national origin.

Iran has been promised a lifting of international sanctions hobbling its economy once it has restrictions on its nuclear program in place as stipulated by the last summer's nuclear deal.