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Iran will not issue visas to Americans as long as the U. S. refuses to issue visas to Iranians, Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said in Tehran on Tuesday.
Tehran said it was unperturbed by the renewed ban on Iranian visitors under US President Donald Trump’s revised executive order from Monday, which had been forced after legal challenges overturned the original order.
Takht-Ravanchi said: “the new executive order is also worthless from a judicial point of view.
“As long as Iranians were barred from entering the U.S., U.S. citizens would be barred from entering Iran; as soon as the U.S. lifts the ban, as it was forced to do at the end of February, Iran would respond in kind.”
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Takht-Ravanchi stressed that Iran had never been involved in any terrorist attacks on US soil.
He said countries that were involved were not on Trump’s list.
Trump signed a revised executive order Monday halting new visas for 90 days for people from six majority-Muslim countries - Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and also suspending refugee admissions for 120 days.
The new order takes effect March 16.
Iraq was on the previous 90-day ban order but is now removed from the list due to enhanced cooperation with the government in Baghdad, the White House said.