16:45

Iran has condemned its inclusion alongside six other predominantly Muslim countries in the US visa ban as an “open affront against the Muslim world and the Iranian nation” and vowed to retaliate.

A foreign ministry statement carried by state media said Iran “would take appropriate consular, legal and political measures” against the ban, which was announced by Trump on Friday.

“The decision by the United States to impose travel restrictions on Muslims – even if it is limited to three months – is an explicit insult to the Muslim world, particularly the great people of Iran,” the statement read, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.



“Instead of countering terrorism and protecting American people, these measures will be written in history as a gift to extremists and their supporters.”

Tehran said it was watching developments on the visa bans closely. “We respect people of America and we differentiate between them and their government but because of supporting the rights of our citizens and until these insulting restrictions have been lifted, we [will] reciprocate.”

Also on Saturday, Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, said: “Today is not the time of wall-raising between nations. Have they forgotten that the Berlin Wall collapsed years ago?”

According to Press TV, Rouhani added: “Today’s world is not a world where one can create distances between the nations and peoples of different territories. Today is a day of neighbourhood. We have become neighbours in cultural, scientific and civilisational terms, and also the world of communications and communications technology have shrunk distances … No one can fight globalisation today.”