Tehran says it will continue its retaliatory measure barring entry into Iran by U.S. citizens in response to President Donald Trump's decision to temporarily bar entry into the United States of citizens from six Muslim-majority countries, including Iran.
Trump on March 6 signed a revised executive order that temporarily freezes the issuing of new visas for citizens of Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen after his original order was blocked by U.S. federal judges.
Individuals from those six countries with preexisting, valid visas would still have their visas honored under the revised executive order, which goes into effect on March 16.
"The new executive order is also worthless from a judicial point of view," Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said on March 7.
Takht-Ravanchi said Iran would refuse visa requests from U.S. citizens for as long as Trump's executive order remained in place, according to the semiofficial ISNA news agency.
He also challenged Trump's assertion that the travel order is necessary to ensure U.S. security, stating that Iran had not been involved in any terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.
Trump's revised order also suspends the U.S. refugee program for 120 days, but does not include the previous indefinite suspension of entry into the United States for Syrian refugees.