Iranian Foreign Minister calls US travel ban truly shameful

Tehran June 30 (IANS) Iranian Foreign Minister Javed Zarif on Friday called the revised US ban on travellers from six Muslim-majority countries as truly shameful.

The US now bans Iranian grandmothers from seeing their grandchildren in a truly shameful exhibition of blind hostility to all Iranians Zarif said in a Twitter post.

He said earlier that Washington s move to exert bans on Muslims and prevent them from entering the US will not help that country to overcome its problems or become a safer place IRNA news agency reported.

A bigoted ban on Muslims will not keep the US safer. Instead of policies empowering extremists the US should join the real fight against them Zarif said.

President Donald Trump s revised travel ban came into force late on Thursday.

The new rules tighten visa policies affecting citizens from six Muslim-majority nations: Sudan Syria Iran Libya Somalia and Yemen. People from those countries who need new visas will now have to prove a close family relationship or an existing relationship with an entity like a school or business in the US.

Citizens of those countries who already have visas will be allowed into the US as usual.

Trump said the 90-day ban on visitors from the six Muslim-majority countries -- and a 120-day ban for refugees from any country -- is necessary to block terrorists from entering the US.

--IANS
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