Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s senior nuclear negotiator and deputy Foreign Minister, in an Instagram post on Monday assured that the letter sent by US Secretary of State John Kerry to Mohammad Javad Zarif on the Visa Waiver Program reform shows the US government’s ‘firm commitment’ to use any means necessary – even to the extent of stopping the enforcement of the law – so that the recent changes in visa requirements passed in Congress will not in any ways hamper the successful implementation of the JCPOA or create any obstacle to Iran’s economic interests.
In a letter sent to his Iranian counterpart on Sunday, John Kerry confirmed to Zarif that the US government is fully committed to the sanctions lifting provided for under the JCPOA and have ‘a number of potential tools available’ so that the new visa law will not pose any obstacle to Iran’s economic interests.
The law passed by Washington on Saturday affecting its Visa Waiver Program (VWP), includes changes that no longer exempts nationals from 38 countries from having to obtain visas to visit the United States if they have traveled to Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan in the past five years.
Zarif and other senior Iranian officials had immediately reacted to the move by describing it as a negative signal in the wake of the conclusion of the nuclear deal.
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