Us Secretary of State John Kerry in a letter on Sunday addressing Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, ensured that the new Visa Waiver Reform law does not violate the JCPOA, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari affirmed.
“After up to 10 days of hard and intensive negotiations between the Iranian foreign minister and nuclear team with the US and European sides in New York, Vienna, Brussels and Tehran on the approval of new visa law in US Congress, as a part of attempts by Zionist lobby, which had almost disempowered the US president of veto right, John Kerry wrote a letter to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and explicitly ensured him that the US administration will not allow the law to create any obstacle to Iran’s economic interests," Jaber Ansari asserted on Sunday.
Here is the text of the letter:
December 19, 2015
His Excellency Mohammad Javad Zarif
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran Tehran
Dear Mr. Minister:
Thanks for a constructive meeting yesterday. I wanted to get back to you in response to your inquiry about amendments to our Visa Waiver Program. First, I want to confirm to you that we remain fully committed to the sanctions lifting provided for under the JCPOA. We will adhere to the full measure of our commitments, per the agreement. Our team is working hard to be prepared and as soon as we reach implementation day we will lift appropriate sanctions.
I am also confident that the recent changes in visa requirements passed in Congress, which the Administration has the authority to waive, will not in any way prevent us from meeting our JCPOA commitments, and that we will implement them so as not to interfere with legitimate business interests of Iran. To this end, we have a number of potential tools available to us, including multiple entry ten-year business visas, programs for expediting business visas, and the waiver authority provided under the new legislation. I am happy to discuss this further and provide any additional clarification.
Secretary of State John Kerry
On Saturday, Washington passed a law affecting its Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which normally exempts nationals from 38 countries from having to obtain visas to visit the United States. As a result of the changes, the program no longer includes dual nationals from Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Sudan, and anyone else who has traveled to those countries in the past five years, Whitehouse reported.
Following that, Iranian officials including Mr. Zarif reacted to the US Congress movement, describing it a negative signal in the wake of the conclusion of the nuclear deal, known as JCPOA.
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