PHOTO: Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif “Collective discrimination aids terrorist recruitment”

Iran has moved immediately to take advantage of President Donald Trump’s ban on people from seven mainly-Muslim countries entering the US.

On Friday Trump signed a sweeping executive order to bar Syrian refugees for 120 days and to suspend visas for 90 days for anyone — including permanent US residents, students, and those working in America — from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. There were mass protests and turmoil at American airports as Saturday as some people were blocked from visiting or returning to the US.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif put out a series of tweets highlighting a Foreign Ministry statement about Trump’s “clear insult to the Muslim world”.

Zarif said the “international community needs dialogue and coperation to address the roots of violence and extremism in a comprehensive and inclusive manner”. He then asserted that the “Muslim Ban” showed the “baselessness of US claims of friendship with the Iranian people”.

The Foreign Minister assured that Iran would take unspecified “reciprocal measures” to protect its citizens “while respecting Americans and differentiating between them and hostile US policies”.

Even before Trump’s executive order, Iran was stepping up its rhetorical campaign both denouncing the President’s actions and proclaiming the Islamic Republic’s more enlightened approach to the world.

On Friday, President Rouhani referred to Trump’s proposal for a 2,000-mile border wall between the US and Mexico, “One cannot raise walls between nations; today is the day of being neighbors.”

Rouhani also criticized the new President’s protectionism, including withdrawal from negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and threats to revise or even abandon the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement: “Breaking trade pacts does not contribute to global economy and development.