Iran to 'retaliate' against order limiting immigration from Muslim-majority countrues
President Donald Trump shows off his signature on an executive order about the Dakota Access pipeline, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
TEHRAN (AP) - Iran's foreign ministry is suggesting the country will limit issuing visas to American tourists in retaliation for U.S. President Donald Trump's suspension of immigration and visas for nationals from Muslim countries including Iran.
The official IRNA news agency Sunday carried a statement by the Iranian foreign ministry that says Iran will resort to "counteraction" to Trump's executive order.
The statement says: "Iran, to defend the dignity of the great Iranian nation, will implement the principle of reciprocity until the removal of the insulting restriction against Iranian nationals."
The statement adds: "It will apply corresponding legal, consular and political actions."
The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since 1979 when militants stormed the U.S. embassy.
It is in response to President Trump's executive order which suspends all immigration from countries with terrorism concerns for 90 days.
The State Department said the three-month ban in the directive applied to Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen -- all Muslim-majority nations.
The order also calls for Homeland Security and State department officials, along with the director of national intelligence, to review what information the government needs to fully vet would-be visitors and come up with a list of countries that don't provide it.
The order says the government will give countries 60 days to start providing the information or citizens from those countries will be barred from traveling to the United States.
The temporary ban extends to foreigners with visas and people with green cards. Anyone who was abroad when the executive order was signed is now barred from coming back to the country for at least three months.
There is an exemption for people whose entry into the country is deemed in the nation's interest, but it's unclear how that exemption may be applied.
Barring any travel to the U.S. from those seven countries, even temporarily, appears to at least partially fulfill a campaign promise Trump made to ban Muslims from coming to the United States until assurances can be made that visitors are properly vetted.