US President Donald Trump’s controversial Muslim ban has been met with criticism from Iran, Iraq and Yemen, whose nationals have been targeted by the restrictive measure.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani slammed on Sunday the US for imposing a travel ban against Iranians and nationals from six other Muslim states and said harboring concerns about terror threats from the Islamic Republic’s nationals “sounds more like a joke.”
Larijani said everyone knows Iran has, over the past years, invariably confronted terrorists, making it a trendsetter, subsequently joined by fellow nations in the region. “Making mention of Iran here under the pretext of concerns about terrorist acts sounds more like a joke,” the top parliamentarian emphasized.
Larijani further said such a move shows the Americans are “even afraid of their own shadow,” adding, “A country, which boasts security power, would not take such decisions out of presentiment, anxiety, and phobia.”
Also on Sunday, Yemen’s Ansarullah movement also lashed out at Trump’s decision and called for the ban to be reversed.
“All attempts to classify Yemen and its citizens as a probable source for terrorism and extremism are illegal and illegitimate,” said the movement in a statement, according to Yemen’s Saba Net news agency.
Iraq’s Sayyed Moqtada Al-Sadr said on Sunday American nationals should leave Iraq, in response to the US travel ban.
“It would be arrogance for you to enter freely Iraq and other countries while barring to them the entrance to your country … and therefore you should get your nationals out,” Al-Sadr said on his website.
Cited by Reuters, two unnamed Iraqi parliamentarians, meanwhile, said Baghdad was to argue with the US that the travel curbs could affect cooperation against the Takfiri ISIL terrorist group.
Hashd al-Shaabi also called on the Iraqi government to react to the ban by preventing US nationals from entering Iraq and expelling those who are already in the country.
Source: Agencies
