A senior Iranian government official on Monday attacked the Trump administration for its recent executive order to halt immigration from countries linked to terrorism, promising retaliation against the United States for the move, which the official described as "a flagrant insult to the Muslim world, specially the great Iranian nation."
Eshaq Jahangiri, Iran's first vice president, said the new travel ban, which includes Iran and other nations tied to terrorism, promised to take "reciprocal measures towards the U.S. nationals who want to travel to Iran," according to comments published in Iran's state-controlled media.
The comments came the same day that Iran again test fired a ballistic missile in violation of international bans on such activity. The move is being viewed as an early test for the Trump administration, which promised more aggressive action towards Iranian intransigence.
Iran will move to ban travel for all individuals holding U.S. visas, a move that could strand some individuals already in the Islamic Republic.
"The United States administration's decision to impose a ban against Muslims' travel to the U.S.—though for a temporary three-month period—is a flagrant insult to the Muslim world, specially the great Iranian nation; and despite claims about confronting terrorism and protecting security of the American people, it will be recorded in the history as a great gift to extremists and their sponsors," Iran's foreign ministry said in a statement.
The new U.S. administration "has targeted the Iranian people and is an obvious insult to each and every member of the Iranian nation, which displays the United States' old allegations about friendship with people despite differences with the Iranian government have all been baseless and indicates the U.S. government and its domestic and foreign influential circles feel collective grudge against all Iranians worldwide," the statement added.