Foreign leaders, citizens react with anger, dismay to Trump's travel ban

In Somalia, people are reacting with dismay and warnings that countries could retaliate against the United States’ new immigration and visa policies with restrictive policies of their own.

“I am shocked beyond words. This will mean that my new husband will never be able to join me in the U.S.,” said Fatima Ashkir, a Somali-American woman from Florida who came to Mogadishu to marry her Somali boyfriend.

Others say they are not surprised at President Donald Trump’s executive order imposing a three-month ban on refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Somalia.

“His intentions of hurting rather than to help were clear from the very beginning,” said Ahmed Abdullahi, a university student in Mogadishu. “But you have to know that this will have a serious effect on relations between Americans and the Muslim world. A tit-for-tat response by Muslim countries, in which Americans could be barred from entering countries affected, is likely to be seen.”

Iran’s foreign ministry is suggesting the country will limit issuing visas to American tourists in retaliation for U.S. President Donald Trump’s suspension of immigration and visas for nationals from Muslim countries including Iran.

The official IRNA news agency carried a statement by the Iranian foreign ministry that says Iran will resort to “counteraction” to Trump’s executive order.

The statement says: “Iran, to defend the dignity of the great Iranian nation, will implement the principle of reciprocity until the removal of the insulting restriction against Iranian nationals.”

The statement adds: “It will apply corresponding legal, consular and political actions.”

The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since 1979 when militants stormed the U.S. embassy.

Earlier today, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said the time has come for removing walls between nations rather than building new ones.

Rouhani did not name any particular country but his remarks come shortly after Trump’s Friday order suspending all immigration and visa processes for nationals from seven countries with terrorism concerns, including Iran, for 90 days.

Rouhani said Saturday, “It is not the day for creating distance among nations.”

Speaking at a tourism conference broadcast on state TV, Rouhani said that those seeking to create such walls, “have forgotten that the Berlin Wall collapsed years ago.”

The head of a leading refugee aid agency says Trump’s decision to ban Syrian refugees hurts innocents fleeing violence.

Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Refugee Council told The Associated Press that Trump’s decision “will not make America safer, it will make America smaller and meaner.”

Trump on Friday suspended refugee admissions for four months and indefinitely banned those from war-torn Syria, pending program changes that are to ensure refugees won’t harm national security.

Egeland says the decision dealt a “mortal blow” to the idea of international responsibility for those fleeing persecution. He says the U.S. is leading a “race to the bottom” in which politicians in wealthy countries provide “zero moral leadership.”