Kerry to Iran: Don’t Worry About Those Visa Waiver Program Changes

(CNSNews) – Secretary of State John Kerry assured his Iranian counterpart in a weekend letter that the administration will find ways to ensure that changes to the U.S. visa waiver program will not interfere with Iran’s “legitimate business interests.”

The changes, contained in the omnibus spending bill which President Obama signed into law on Friday, are set to affect citizens of the 38 visa waiver program (VWP) partner countries who have visited Iran (as well as Syria, Sudan and Iraq) since March 2011. Those individuals will be required to apply for a visa for future travel to the U.S.

Iran complained that the restrictions would violate the nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which obliges the U.S. not to take any actions that will “adversely affect the normalization of trade and economic relations with Iran.”

In his Dec. 19 letter to Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, Kerry said he was “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 JCPOA commitments, and that we will implement them so as not to interfere with legitimate business interests of Iran.”

“To 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,” Kerry wrote. “I am happy to discuss this further and provide any additional clarification.”

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