Iran criticizes ‘clear insult,’ bars Americans from visiting

Iran fired back at President Trump’s order preventing its citizens from entering the United States by blocking Americans wishing to enter the Middle Eastern country, as officials in Tehran called the move “a clear insult to the Islamic world.”

“Despite claims of being made to combat terrorism and protecting the people of the United States, it will be recorded in history as a great gift to extremists and their supporters,” the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Iran, to defend the dignity of the great Iranian nation, will implement the principle of reciprocity until the removal of the insulting restriction against Iranian nationals.”

Placing Iran — a Muslim country helping the U.S. fight ISIS in Iraq — on the sevencountry immigration ban list surprised experts who said the burden would fall to ordinary Iranians and Iranian-Americans blocked from visiting relatives in either country.

“It’s going to cause a lot of hardship between the populations — not the government, but the population of those two countries,” Boston University international relations professor William Keylor told the Herald. “It was a surprise to me that Iran was included in the list. Iran is fighting ISIS.”

Keylor added: “He’s chosen countries that are not powerful countries or influential countries, and is ignoring countries where there have been terrorists coming from those countries to the U.S.”

Northeastern University terror expert Max Abrahms said Trump’s “entire approach to counter terrorism is reducing the opportunity for terrorists to attack the United States. He think it’s worth the risk of aggravating the Muslim community.

“The other countries are failed states,” Abrahms said. “Iran is not a failed state. Iran doesn’t belong on the list. This list itself is not a good idea. Terrorists can come from any country. Some countries have posed a threat to the U.S. and are not on the list.”