Off the wire
• Britain hails best ever year for film makers  • Iraqi PM lays wreath at Monument to the People's Heroes  • France's Nov. consumption hits 12-month low  • Chinese defends ship patrol near Diaoyu Islands  • China to promote direct financing  • China governance academies urged to follow correct political path  • Boko Haram militants kill at least 5 in Niger: reports  • France to revoke dual citizenship in fighting terrorism  • Dafalgan Pediatrie 30mg/ml in many EU countries recalled  • King Salman says Saudi Arabia not affected by oil price drop  
You are here: 　 Home

Iran says U.S. visa waiver restrictions may endanger JCPOA implementation

Xinhua, December 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday that recent move by the U.S. Congress to practice visa restrictions on people who have travelled to Iran may endanger the implementation of the nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers.

U.S. Congress has recently passed a new legislation to tighten the Visa Waiver Program to make it difficult for the potential suspects with terrorist intentions to legally enter the United States.

The congressmen have appealed for increasing restrictions on the individuals who have travelled to certain countries, including Iran, from bypassing security checks upon entering the United States.

If the U.S. clamp restrictions on the international economic activists, who have been to Iran, to travel to the United States, "this would be the violation of the terms of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)", Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a joint press conference with his visiting counterpart from Mongolia.

However, in the recent letter from the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the Americans have assured that "they would not allow the new legislation to obstruct the implementation of JCPOA", Zarif said.

The U.S. internal policies should not hamper the fulfilment of the international obligations of the United States, he stressed.

On Monday, Zarif said the new U.S. legislation was against Europe's independence, urging the European countries to express their independent resolve concerning such "discriminatory approaches."

Under the nuclear deal signed on July 14 in Vienna, Austria, by Iran and the P5+1 group, namely Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States, and Germany, Tehran should significantly scale back its atomic plan to address Western countries' concerns over its alleged nuclear weapons program.

Iran would improve the transparency of its nuclear plan, downsize its capacity for uranium enrichment and do changes in the structure of its heavy water reactor in exchange for international and Western sanctions relief.

After the accord in July, economic delegations from major European countries visited Iran to renew business links with the country where there is a huge appetite for consuming foreign goods. Endit