Iran will retaliate if the United States breaches the nuclear arms deal by carrying out new visa restrictions on Iranians, Tehran warned December 28.
U.S. President Barack Obama last week signed a law that prevents people who visited Iran or are Iranian citizens from entering the United States visa-free. The same restrictions apply to citizens or visitors from Syria, Iraq, and Sudan.
While the law is aimed at blocking potential terrorists, Tehran maintains that it was intended to keep alive the U.S. sanctions on travel and economic development that the July nuclear deal was supposed to eliminate.
"Any steps taken outside the agreement are unacceptable to Iran, and Iran will take its own steps in response where necessary," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari told a news conference.
He said a committee overseeing the nuclear deal will determine the Iranian response. Nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi heads that committee and has said the visa law contravenes the deal.
Tehran points out it had nothing to do with recent terrorist attacks in California and Paris that prompted passage of the law.
Iran was included in the restrictions because Washington designates it a "state sponsor of terrorism."