Trump’s travel ban imposed on nations not subservient to US: Analyst

US President Donald Trump’s travel ban is based on geopolitical reasons and imposed against countries that refuse to join America’s sphere of influence, says a political analyst in Virginia.

News ID: 448616

Date: 25 January 2020 - 10:19

RNA - “I noticed that Belarus was included. Belarus is of course another nation that is widely considered to be the equivalent of a rogue state by the United States because they are not subservient to Washington’s objectives,” said Keith Preston, chief editor of AttacktheSystem.com.

“They have refused to be incorporated into the Washington consensus,” Preston told Press TV.

“So some of these nations, it’s likely that there are geopolitical reasons why they were included [in the travel ban list],” he added.

The Trump administration is planning to add seven countries - Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania - to its travel ban list, US media reports said on Tuesday.

Some countries will face bans only on some visa categories, the Wall Street Journal reported. The list of countries was not final and could yet change, website Politico said.

Trump said in an interview with the Journal that he was considering adding countries to the travel ban, but declined to state which ones.

The move is likely to sour ties between the United States and the countries affected under the expanded ban.

Nigeria, for example, Africa's largest economy and most populous country, is a US anti-terrorism partner and has a large diaspora residing in the United States.

Under the current version of the ban, citizens of Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, as well as some Venezuelan officials and their relatives are blocked from obtaining a large range of US immigrant and non-immigrant visas.

Citizens of the countries can apply for waivers to the ban, but they are exceedingly rare.

The travel ban to the US has been central to Trump's immigration policy and his campaign promise to restrict immigration to the US.

During the 2016 presidential race, Trump campaigned for "a total and complete shutdown" of Muslims entering the United States on the pretext of preventing terrorist attacks.

Opponents say the ban violates the US Constitution because it discriminates against Muslims and certain nationalities.

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