The Iranian parliament, in a tit-for-tat measure, passed a bill
yesterday obliging the government to fingerprint US citizens
entering the Islamic Republic, state radio reported.
The proposal, backed by 135 votes to 26, also requires a complete
security check on every American who enters Iran. The bill now goes
to the Guardian Council, a constitutional watchdog body, before
becoming law.
US journalists are already fingerprinted on arrival in Iran but
it has not been law until now.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who regularly rails
against US policies, had urged MPs not to pass the law even though
Iranians were fingerprinted in the United States. He said Iran had
nothing against Americans. But MPs ignored the plea.
"The government is obliged to fingerprint all American citizens,
in order to reciprocate behavior of American officials towards
Iranian citizens," said the bill, which was read out during a
parliament session broadcast live on radio.
Iran has criticized Washington for fingerprinting Iranians upon
arrival in the United States, part of a US policy toward citizens
of states it accuses of supporting terrorism.
The United States says Iran is part of an "axis of evil" seeking
to build nuclear weapons.
Washington is pressing the UN Security Council to impose sanctions
on Teheran, which says it needs atomic energy to generate
electricity.
Echoing the president's comments in October, Foreign Minister
Manouchehr Mottaki told lawmakers to scrap the bill.
He said US President George W. Bush's Republican party's defeat
during midterm elections earlier this month was proof its policy to
fingerprint visiting Iranians had failed.
The Republicans lost control of the US Congress to Democrats
during the elections.
The Bush administration "wanted to humiliate the Iranian nation,
but American people during the US midterm elections opposed the
administration's policy by their votes," Mottaki said.
But lawmaker Mahmoud Mohammadi disagreed.
"The president and his government were against this bill... but
MPs wanted to preserve Iranian citizens' integrity by passing the
bill," Mohammadi said.
"The United States will become more daring if we withdraw," said
legislator Morteza Tammadon, who voted for the bill.
(China Daily November 20, 2006)
