Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says it is regrettable that the US Supreme Court has decided to partially reinstate President Donald Trump's travel ban on refugees and people from six Muslim-majority countries, warning that the move can fuel extremism in the region.
“It's regrettable that the citizens of the countries on the list have never participated in any act of terrorism against the United States and yet they are punished for acts of terrorism that have been committed by citizens of other countries who are not on the list,” Zarif said in a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel in Berlin on Tuesday.
“We always believed that the Muslim ban that President Trump imposed soon after assuming office had no basis in facts and it would not help fight terrorism,” he added.
The US Supreme Court on Monday partially reinstated the travel ban restricting citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from traveling to US.
People from the six countries and all refugees are not allowed to enter the US unless they have “a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States,” according to the court.
The top Iranian diplomat criticized US Supreme Court's move as a “misplaced and misguided policy” and emphasized that it “would be the greatest gift to extremist groups who would use it as a rallying cry to attract new followers.”
“It is regrettable that the Supreme Court decided to overrule the decisions of the previous courts or at least consider overruling them, if you want to be more exact,” Zarif said.
He said the Supreme Court’s decision would fail to increase anybody’s security.
“It is not a call for putting anybody else on the list, but it’s just the problem that for some terrorism and support for terrorism is measured by the amount of money they spend on buying arms from the US and not by actually being involved in acts of terrorism,” the Iranian foreign minister pointed out.
On his first foreign trip, the US president visited Saudi Arabia and sealed arms deals worth almost $110 billion (98 billion euros) with Riyadh.
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