Head of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi made the remarks in reaction to recent leaked reports which outline new criteria for visa applicants to US from six mainly Muslim countries including Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Yemen.
Under the new guidelines, new visa applicants from these six countries and all refugees must prove a relationship to a "close" relative already in the US to be eligible for a US visa.
Boroujerdi went on to add that such anti-Muslim policies will not benefit the Americans, either.
“Bolstering extremist groups in the past few decades, that is since the occupation of Afghanistan’s territory by the Soviet Union and the establishment of al Qaeda in Pakistan, and then the US support and training of these terrorist groups show one side of Washington’s contradictory approach toward the Muslim world,” Boroujerdi said on Wednesday.
He went on to add, “in recent years leading to the crises in Iraq and Syria, the US created and sponsored other terrorist groups such as ISIL and al-Nusra to depict an unrealistic and violent image of Islam in the eyes of the world public opinion.”
Placing travel restrictions on nationals of Muslim countries under the pretext of fighting extremism which has been in fact established and sponsored by the US itself is just another example of the country’s contradictory standards, he added.
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