Lawmakers decried the US Supreme Court's approval of a travel ban against Iranian nationals and said Tehran must protect its citizens by following up the matter in international courts.
Yahya Kamalipour, chairman of Majlis Judicial and Legal Commission, said this is against international law, ICANA reported.
The US Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a ban ordered by US President Donald Trump on travelers from six Muslim-majority countries and two other countries could be immediately imposed.
The ban means that the US would categorically refuse entry visas to prospective travelers from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, plus North Korea and Venezuela.
Kamalipour said the court's decision is questionable, adding that the ban had been approved under pressure from the Trump administration. Trump has struggled to implement a travel ban since he became president on January 20, after having repeatedly promised during his election campaign to ban all Muslims from entering the United States. Trump has issued three travel bans, with the third one receiving the high court's endorsement.
The president's first ban, issued in January, was chaotically rolled out and quickly blocked by a series of lower court rulings. The second attempt, a more streamlined version of the first, was also blocked by the lower courts but was eventually allowed to come into effect in a limited form over the summer.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif—who had previously called the ban the "greatest gift" for militants seeking new recruits—slammed the US travel ban last week in a tweet.
License for Bigotry
"US Supreme Court defends and allows Trump's #MuslimBan to go into full effect, giving bigotry full license in USA. Sad!" he wrote.
Trump's ban targets six predominantly Muslim countries whose citizens have so far not been involved in killings in the US.
On the contrary, all major terrorist groups attacking the United States and other western countries over the past couple of decades—from Al-Qaeda to the Taliban to the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group—can trace their roots back to countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates that conspicuously did not make the list.
Fifteen out of 19 hijackers, who slammed two planes into twin towers of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, were Saudi nationals. Lawmaker Mohammad Javad Abtahi said the main target of the US travel ban is Iran and urged the government to express a "serious reaction" against the move.
"This move hinders scientific exchanges between scientists and businessmen," he said, adding that the ban is another case of US animosity toward the Iranian nation and in line with other measures to prevent Tehran from fully reaping the benefits of a landmark 2015 nuclear accord signed between Iran and world powers.
Since coming into effect, Tehran has long said Washington's unhelpful approach toward the deal has led to a situation where many banks and businesses are still wary of working with Iran, though the international sanctions imposed on Iran had been lifted as part of the agreement.
