Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday said it was regrettable that the U. S. Supreme Court revived part of a U. S. travel ban imposed on citizens from six majority Muslim countries, and said it could fuel extremism in the region.
« We always believed that the Muslim ban that President Trump imposed soon after assuming office had no basis in facts and would not help fight terrorism, » Zarif said, calling it a « greatest gift » for militant groups seeking new recruits.
Zarif did not mention Saudi Arabia specifically, but said the travel ban punished people who had never been convicted of a terrorist act, while people from other countries involved in past attacks were not affected.
« For some terrorism and support for terrorism is measured by the amount of arms they buy from the U. S, and not by actually being involved in acts of terrorism, » Zarif said, in an apparent reference to recent U. S. approval of $110 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia, whose citizens are not affected by the travel ban.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Madeline Chambers)
