President of Syria Bashir Al-Assad
President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad has supported the travel ban by U.S. President Donald Trump saying that the action was not against the people of Syria.
In an interview with French broadcasters that Assad stated that the move was only targeted at terrorists who try to infiltrate genuine immigrants.
“It’s against the terrorists that would infiltrate some of the immigrants to the West. And that happened. It happened in Europe, mainly in Germany,” he stated.
Assad is the only President who had reacted in this way to the ban, others countries have berated the U.S. for the ban. Below are reactions from other countries and their nationals.
Iran
Iran in its reaction stated that it would take a reciprocal measure against the ban.
Iran foreign ministry called the ban insulting adding that any retaliation will be “proportionate” and will be made “while respecting the American people and differentiating between them and the hostile policies of the U.S. Government.”
It added however that American citizens were still very welcomed to visit Iran.
Iranian media however question the travel ban and wondered why countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Russia and Kyrgyzstan were not included even though their nationals have been involved in terrorist attacks in the U.S.
Yemen
Yemen stated that although it was the sovereign right of the U.S. to decide who does not enter its territory, the country however stressed that it was illegal to classify Yemen or its citizens as possible source of terrorism.
Yemen also characterized a deadly U.S. raid that was carried out recently as “state terrorism committed by the United States under the pretext of fighting terrorism.”
Sudan
America’s envoy in Khartoum was summoned by Sudan’s Foreign Ministry to hear the country’s protests against Trump’s decision, which came at a time of increasing cooperation between the U.S. and Sudan.
Sudan’s government has been working to be taken off the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism — just weeks ago, President Obama eased economic sanctions against the country that had stood for 20 years.
Somalia
The government of Somalia has not issued any official response to the ban.
However, a lot of controversy and clarification was sought for a Somali born British Citizen and Olympian, Mo Farah who criticized the ban saying that he had been made an alien by the ban.
Farah said via Facebook: “It’s deeply troubling that I will have to tell my children that Daddy might not be able to come home — to explain why the President has introduced a policy that comes from a place of ignorance and prejudice.”
Libya
No official statement has been issued by the government of Libya. But it is worthy of note that the ban came weeks before a proposed conference on U.S.-Libya relations was scheduled to be held in Washington, D.C.