New visa restrictions contained in a bill passed by the House last week could threaten Iran’s compliance with a deal limiting its nuclear program if they are enacted into law, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Sunday.
Araqchi told state-controlled Press TV that the legislation, which would eliminate the visa waiver for people who travel to Iran, violates the nuclear agreement concluded with six world powers in July. The House passed the bill Tuesday by an overwhelming bipartisan margin, and the Senate is set to consider it this week.
“The recent bill has different legal aspects. We are reviewing it. We will take action if it proves to be against the JCPOA,” Araqchi said, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the Iran deal is formally known.
It’s the latest sign of how Tehran views any action taken by Washington against its interests as a potential violation of the deal, which Iran reached with the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China on July 14 in Vienna. In October, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, declared that Tehran would consider “any imposition of sanctions at any level and under any pretext” as a violation of the deal.
This is complicating Obama administration efforts to keep its promise to push back against Iran’s threatening behaviors and angering lawmakers who want a tougher stance.
The House-passed legislation is aimed at reducing the chances terrorists can sneak into the United States by requiring visas for citizens from waiver countries who have traveled to Iraq, Iran, Syria or Sudan in the previous five years, and requiring counterterrorism cooperation as a condition of remaining in the program. It’s one of several counterterrorism measures either in the works or planned in response to deadly attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif.
The United States considers Iran a state sponsor of terrorism.
Araqchi’s comments also are likely to increase skepticism on Capitol Hill about the method of enforcing the deal, in which Iran gets billions of dollars in relief from sanctions that have crippled its economy and isolated it from the international financial system in exchange for limits on its nuclear ambitions.
On Tuesday, the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to vote to close the case on Iran’s past experiments with nuclear weapons, clearing the way for sanctions to be lifted, and U.S. lawmakers are staging a last-ditch effort to derail that process.
