Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif announced Wednesday the nuclear deal between world powers and Iran is in jeopardy following a new U.S. law that puts visa restrictions on Iranian nationals.
The measure, which was recently passed by Congress, would prevent Iranian nationals and visitors of Iran from traveling into the United States without a visa. Doing so will help boost counterterror efforts, advocates say, citing Iran’s continuing state-sponsorship of terrorist groups, such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
Iran has also in the past financed Al Qaeda operations. The regime in Tehran now helps prop up the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who has taken to slaughtering his own citizens in the midst of the ongoing Syrian civil war.
The new visa bill, which was signed into law by President Obama last week, also applies to Iraq, Syria, and Sudan, which are all hotbeds of Islamic terror. The bill came on the heels of the Islamic terror attack in San Bernardino, California, where a couple who had pledged to the Islamic State killed fourteen people and wounded countless more in a jihadi rampage.
“If the Congress law is implemented as it is, it would definitely be a breach (of the nuclear deal),” Zarif said, according to state-run Tasnim News Agency.
Meanwhile, Iran has taken to completing ballistic missile tests in clear violation of UN sanctions. The regime there, however, does not view their recent actions as a “breach” on the JCPOA.
Zarif added that he has corresponded with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry over the visa issue, hoping “these measures stop any obstacle in implementation of the JCPOA.”
The new visa law entails that people who have traveled to Iran, Iraq, Syria, or Sudan in the last five years, along with dual nationals of those nations, are not eligible for visa-free travel.
It appears that Kerry has capitulated to Iran’s demands, and has offered Iran the ability to bypass the law.
“We are deeply concerned that the narrowly intended use of the waiver authority will be ignored in favor of applying the waiver authority to those who have traveled to Iran for business purposes,” said a letter from five congressional Republicans in response to Kerry’s accommodation to Iran.
“Congress and the president strengthened the [Visa Waiver Program] in order to protect the national security of the United States,” they wrote. “Iran is impacted by this new law because it is a U.S.-designated state sponsor of terrorism. The simplest way to eliminate this restriction is for Iran to end its support of terrorism.”
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