Iran halts passport stamping for tourists, embraces terrorists

Eslam Mohamed

The spokesman for Iran’s Interior Ministry Seyed Salman Samani said President Hassan Rouhani’s order to stop stamping passports of foreign visitors at the country’s border crossings and airports has been executed.

This decision has raised many question marks regarding the motives and consequences of the decision under the current circumstances in the region, thanks to Iran’s policy that threatens the security and stability of countries.

“The issue of the elimination of arrival and departure stamps on the passports of foreign nationals became operational by the Supreme National Security Council’s task force on borders,” Salmani added.

Following follow-up efforts and coordination with the Iranian Immigration and Passport Police Office and other relevant authorities, this order has been executed in all land, sea and air borders of the country, the official stated.

Back in June, Rouhani ordered the Interior Ministry to stop stamping passports of foreign visitors at airports.

The Iranian administration has been working on plans for more than a year to facilitate travels to Iran and encourage foreign tourists to visit the country without concerns, however, this decision raises fears by some countries that terrorist fighters would travel to Iran to receive trainings for terrorist operations in neighboring countries. The decision will make tracing them almost impossible.

Iranian officials say nationals of 190 countries can obtain a visa to visit the country on arrival at the airport, valid for 30 days, and with the possibility of another 15-day extension.

Mohammad-Javad Larijani, the international affairs assistant in the Iranian judiciary, confessed in June 2018 that Iran facilitated the passage of al-Qaeda members who carried out the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in New York.

In an interview with the Iranian state TV broadcast on May 30, 2018 and circulated by activists on social media networks, Larijani narrated the details of the Iranian regime’s relations with al-Qaeda and how the Iranian intelligence supervised the passage and relocation of al-Qaeda members in Iran.

“Our government agreed not to stamp the passports of some of them because they were on transit flights for two hours, and they were resuming their flights without having their passports stamped. However their movements were under the complete supervision of the Iranian intelligence,” he added.

Mohamed Abadi, an expert on Iranian Affairs, told The Reference in an interview that this decision will have repercussions that will not be clear in the near future, however, days might reveal the identities of those who often deal with the terrorist regime in Tehran, who hold the responsibility of supporting terrorism in the region.

He further added that the Iranians have applied such measures a lot, but this time, they have circulated the resolution and acknowledged it publicly, widening the ring of suspicions.