Iran takes fingerprints of Americans on arrival

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran has enacted a law requiring American citizens visiting the country to be fingerprinted upon arrival, an official said Saturday.

Conservatives drafted the law in retaliation for the U.S. requirement that Iranian visitors be fingerprinted. The U.S. measure, which also applies to nationals of other countries, was implemented after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

A spokesman for the Guardian Council, an Iranian constitutional watchdog that must review all bills before they become law, announced its approval of the legislation Saturday, the official Iranian News Agency reported.

Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei said the government now “is required to inspect and fingerprint all American nationals at entry ports and visa issuance centers in consistency with the U.S. behavior.”

The council approved the law earlier in the week, he said. Iran’s parliament passed the bill Nov. 19.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opposed the bill, saying in October: “We do not have a problem with American people. We oppose only the U.S. government’s bullying and arrogance,” according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.

The power to cancel the law lies with parliament and the Guardian Council, which would have to pass new legislation annulling the measure.

The United States and Iran have had no diplomatic relations since militant Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held the staff hostage for more than a year.