Tehran and the Afghan Taliban chief denounced on Saturday the prohibition of travel of the United States of citizens of 12 countries mostly from the Middle East and African, saying that Washington’s decision was a sign of a “racist mentality.”
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, signed on Wednesday an executive order that revived the radical restrictions that echo their prohibition of traveling for the first time, justified by the national security land after a fire pump attack in a Pro-Israel demonstration in Colorado.
Alireza Hashemi-Raja, general director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Iranian affairs abroad, called the measure, which in force on June 9, “a clear sign of the domain of a supremacist and racist mentality among US policy formulators.”
The decision “indicates the deep hostility of American decision makers to the Iranian and Muslim people,” added in a statement published by the Ministry.
In addition to Iran, the prohibition of the United States points to the nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. A partial prohibition was imposed on travelers from seven other countries.
Hashemi-Raja said that the policy “violates the fundamental principles of international law” and deprives “hundreds of millions of people from the right to travel based only on their nationality or religion.”
The official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the prohibition was discriminatory and that “it would imply international responsibility for the United States government,” without elaborating.
Iran and the United States cut the diplomatic ties shortly after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and relations have remained deeply tense since then.
The United States is home to the largest Iranian community outside Iran.
According to figures from the Tehran Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 2020, there were about 1.5 million Iranians in the United States.
Trump’s executive order occurred days after Sunday attack in the Rally of Colorado, in which the authorities said that more than a dozen people were injured. The suspect is an Egyptian man who had overcome a tourist visa.
Separately, the supreme leader of the Afghan Taliban, Sheikh Hibatullah Akhundada, used his EID sermon in southern Kandahar to hit the prohibition of travel of the United States and the decision to veto a resolution of the UN Security Council asking for a high fire and humanitarian access without restrictions in Gaza.
The spokesman for the Afghan government, Zabihullah Mujahid, said that the Taliban leader directed Eidgah sentences in Kandahar with thousands attending the congregation.
Mujahid published Akhundada’s address in his official X.
“Fourteen countries supported the resolution that asks for a high fire in Palestine, but oppressive America, which had committed atrocities here in Afghanistan, is now committing atrocities in Palestine. Palestinian Muslims are victims of oppression. The United States is supporting Israel.”
He regretted that some people were happy with friendship with the United States and considered it success for themselves. “The United States is the greatest oppressor. America is the murderer of all Muslims in Palestine,” said the Taliban leader.
He said peace was established in Afghanistan.
“Those who followed the path of jihad have succeeded … nobody expected Muslims to come out victorious in Afghanistan. Americans would be humiliated in the world as they were in Afghanistan,” he said.
“Israel is oppressing the Palestinians with the support of the United States, and if the United States is not his, then Israel has not so much power”
The Taliban leader defended a complete prohibition of opium cultivation in Afghanistan and said he had not made the decision to obtain anything from the world. “But this decision had been made according to the Islamic Sharia,” Akhundada said.
