TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Wednesday that if the new congressional approval, which restricts travel to Iran, is enacted fully it will definitely be considered a violation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly called the nuclear deal.

“If the congressional ratification is exactly observed it will surely be a violation of the JCPOA,” Zarif said in a joint press conference with his Mongolian counterpart Lundeg Purevsuren. 

On December 18 the U.S. Congress passed a measure as part of a national budget bill that will no longer allow citizens of 38 countries - including European countries - who have either travelled to Iraq, Syria, Iran or Sudan in the past five years or are dual nationals of these states, to travel to the U.S. without a visa.

On whether the legislation would have any effect on countries’ economic ties with Iran, Zarif said, “As we have announced earlier we negotiate with the American administration as the full representative of the country and have nothing to do with Congress.”

The chief diplomat said the U.S. has made some commitment under the nuclear deal and based on international regulations domestic decisions cannot exempt a country from its “international commitments”.

Iran has said other members of 5+1 countries - Russia, China, Germany, Britain and France - should respond to the U.S. legislation.

Zarif said the fact that his U.S. counterpart has written a letter to him
officially announcing that the U.S. administration will not allow any problem in the implementation of the JCPOA is something which the sides of the nuclear agreement should see “how it (legislation) is implemented”.

It should be seen whether the legislation will be “a violation of the JCPOA or not”, he added.

---Supervisory Board to decide about U.S. legislation---

Zarif said, “The 5+1 countries who have great interest (in Iran) would prevent the implementation of such discriminatory decisions.”

The foreign minister said he had discussed the issue with Kerry in New York, where he had visited for the Syrian conference. He also said his deputies at the Foreign Ministry have received tens of emails and calls by Western negotiators about the move by the U.S. Congress.

However the chief diplomat added the Foreign Ministry will convey all these issues to a supervisory board of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) to make a decision.

“The board will decide what we should do,” he noted.

The SNSC supervisory board is tasked to oversee the implementation of the JCPOA.

On Tuesday the presiding board of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee sent a letter to the SNSC board on the violation of the JCPOA by the U.S. Congress.