Changes to US visa waiver programme contradict nuke deal

Tehran: Changes to a US visa waiver programme that impose travel restrictions on those who visit Iran contradict the landmark nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday.

In recent days, the US has tightened security requirements of its visa waiver programme, which allows citizens of 38 countries to travel to the US without visas. Now, people from those countries who have travelled to Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan in the past five years must obtain visas to enter the country.

The new rule was signed into law by US President Barack Obama on Friday as part of a $1.1 trillion (Dh4 trillion) spending bill.

Under the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the world powers including the US are committed to refrain from any policy intended to adversely affect normalisation of trade and economic relations with Iran.

“The law Obama signed contradicts JCPOA,” state TV quoted Araghchi as saying. “Definitely, this law adversely affects economic, cultural, scientific and tourism relations.”

Araghchi said Iran will go to the commission overseeing the implementation of the deal if the law is implemented.

In a letter to his Iranian counterpart, US Secretary of State John Kerry reassured Iran that the law “will not in any way prevent us from meeting our JCPOA commitments.”

Kerry noted in the letter to Mohammad Javad Zarif that there are “a number of potential tools available,” including multiple entry ten-year business visas and programmes for expediting business visas.

On Sunday, a group of 102 Iranian lawmakers condemned the new legislation and called on President Hassan Rouhani to take retaliatory measures against the US. However, they did not say what specific steps Iran can take. Iran’s 290-seat parliament is controlled by conservatives.