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Tehran, Dec 21, IRNA -- Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi has described as 'insulting' US new immigration measures which have led to in widespread detention of Middle Eastern nationals, mostly Iranians, press said Saturday.
Asefi described the measure as 'unacceptable', saying it was not justified by any international standards, the Persian daily Siasat-e Rouz said.
US immigration lawyers have estimated that at least 500 Middle Eastern immigrants, mostly Iranians, have been detained in California since Monday when male visa holders were asked to report to local immigration offices to be fingerprinted and photographed.
"The American government has put violence, threat and pressure on the agenda of its foreign policy. It has taken measures against those Iranians who, in American officials' own words, are among the elite and educated of that country," the paper said quoting Asefi.
"This step of the American government contradicts international conventions on civil rights and Iran's Foreign Ministry regrets it," he added.
Asefi stressed that his ministry maintains its policy of seriously defending rights of Iranian nationals in every part of the globe, Siasat-e Rouz said.
The press Saturday also quoted editors of several Iranian newspapers as having sent a message to their American counterparts, in which they have condemned US officials' 'inappropriate measures' in detaining their countrymen.
Relations between Tehran and Washington have remained tense after the US severed ties with the Islamic Republic when the Students Following the Line of Imam stormed the American embassy in Tehran in 1979.
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