Iranian officials called the new U.S. limits on refugees and travelers from several predominantly Muslim countries a “clear insult to the Islamic world” and predicted the ban would be “a great gift to extremists and their supporters.”In a statement on the Foreign Ministry website, the government of Iran vowed unspecified retaliatory measures and emphasized that the international community “needs dialogue and cooperation to address the roots of violence and extremism in a comprehensive and inclusive manner.”Iran is one of seven countries—also including Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Syria and Iraq—whose residents are temporarily prevented from entering the United States until a new “extreme vetting” procedure can be put into place. The White House order signed Friday also blocks all refugees from entering the U.S. for 120 days and suspends the acceptance of refugees from war-torn Syria indefinitely. Iran’s foreign ministry said the government in Tehran “will take proportionate legal, consular and political action” in response to the U.S. moves “until the time of the removal of the insulting restrictions” ordered in Washington. In a series of tweets, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif made the point even more strongly: "Collective discrimination aids terrorist recruitment by deepening fault-lines exploited by extremist demagogues to swell their ranks," he said.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 28, 2017 22:20 UTC