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U.S. Republican lawmakers on Monday blasted Secretary of State John Kerry for suggesting in a letter to the Iranian regime’s Foreign Minister that the Obama administration could help Tehran get around new visa restrictions passed by Congress, Fox News reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of bending over backwards to try to placate the Iranian regime, the White House needs to be holding it accountable for its recent missile tests, its continued support for terrorism, and its wrongful imprisonment of Americans,\u201d House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., said in a statement to FoxNews.com.<\/p>\n
At issue are tightened security requirements for America\u2019s visa waiver program, which allows citizens of 38 countries to travel to the U.S. without visas. Under changes in the newly signed spending bill, people from those countries who have traveled to Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan in the past five years must now obtain visas to enter the U.S.<\/p>\n
Officials of the Iranian regime claim the changes violate the terms of the nuclear deal, which says the U.S. and other world powers will refrain from any policy intended to adversely affect normalization of trade and economic relations with Iran.<\/p>\n
Kerry responded to these concerns in a December 19 letter to Mohammad Javad Zarif — and suggested the administration could simply bypass the rules for Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am also confident that the recent changes in visa requirements passed in Congress, which the Administration has the authority to waive, will not in any way prevent us from meeting our [nuclear deal] commitments, and that we will implement them so as not to interfere with legitimate business interests of Iran,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kerry\u2019s letter to Zarif assured that the U.S. would \u201cadhere to the full measure of our commitments.\u201d As for changes to the visa program, Kerry floated several alternative options for easing any impact on Iran \u2013 including waiving the new requirements.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo this end, we have a number of potential tools available to us, including multiple entry ten-year business visas, programs for expediting business visas, and the waiver authority provided under the new legislation,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
The legislation indeed includes a provision allowing the Homeland Security secretary to waive the requirements if the secretary determines this \u201cis in the law enforcement or national security interests of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
But House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., voiced concern on Monday that Kerry was proposing a \u201cblanket\u201d waiver to accommodate the Iranian regime\u2019s complaints. He said that is not Congress\u2019 intent.<\/p>\n
\u201cContrary to what the Secretary of State seems to be saying to Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, it was not and has never been Congress\u2019s intent to allow the Administration to grant a blanket waiver to travellers from Iran in order to facilitate the implementation of the Iran deal,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
McCarthy said the point of the legislation was to strengthen security and \u201ckeep the American people safe from terrorism and from foreign travelers who potentially pose a threat to our homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerry\u2019s assurances also raised concerns that the U.S. may be backing down to Tehran\u2019s complaints while at the same time reluctant to punish the Iranian regime for its own violations.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of undermining Congressional intent regarding the visa waiver program, the White House should instead focus on Iran\u2019s repeated violations of the U.N. Security Council’s bans on missile tests,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cIran\u2019s unwillingness to follow these international agreements should be a red flag that the Iran nuclear deal isn\u2019t worth the paper it is written on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.S. Republican lawmakers on Monday blasted Secretary of State John Kerry for suggesting in a letter to the Iranian regime’s Foreign Minister that the Obama administration could help Tehran get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[175],"class_list":{"0":"post-19672","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nuclear","8":"tag-updated"},"yoast_head":"\n