A conference on freedom of the press in Syria has strongly condemned a resolution by the US Congress which calls for a ban on a number of Middle Eastern channels.

Participants in the Damascus conference urged international support for the Gaza-based al-Aqsa, Lebanon’s al-Manar and the Iranian-based al-Alam TV networks, included in the resolution.

Some lecturers said the move was rooted in Zionism and described it as an effort to cover up Israeli crimes in the Palestinian territories.

The bill, endorsed by an overwhelming majority of US congressmen in December, calls for punitive measures against television networks in the Middle East.

In late January, the Saudi-run satellite operator Arabsat took off air the Arabic-language al-Alam television network without prior notice.

The network was also temporarily off the air in November, when Arabsat and Cairo-based Nilesat dropped it without prior notification.

The move was criticized by several regional and international media and political activists who condemned the move for violating freedom of expression.

Al-Alam officials also said the removal is in violation of the satellite’s obligation to the network.

Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has urged the top nuclear body to switch its focus from Syria’s atomic work to Israel’s nuclear arsenal as the main cause for concern.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh read out a statement in the Thursday meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors on the implementation of the Safeguards Agreements in Syria.

In the statement, Soltanieh said that Iran was “deeply concerned” about the IAEA’s verification measures which, he said have shifted focus from Israel’s nuclear work as the main source of problem to “secondary technical” issues.

“The core problem is, in fact, the Zionist regime of Israel’s offensive against Syria which is a blatant violation of the UN Charter and the international law including the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Fars News Agency quoted Soltanieh as saying on Thursday.

In September 2007, Israeli warplanes destroyed Syria’s al-Kibar military site blaming the country for harboring a nuclear reactor there, a claim rejected by Syria.

Soltanieh then accused Israel and its allies of having engaged the IAEA in a made-up scenario by raising “false claims” against Syria.

“Meanwhile, those member states who cry foul over Syria ['s nuclear work] have turned a blind eye to the Israeli regime’s nuclear arsenal, which poses a serious threat to both regional and global peace and security,” he said.

An IAEA report by Director General Yukiya Amano said in February that uranium particles found at the Syrian complex suggest the possibility of covert nuclear activity at the site.

In response to the report, Syria said that unlike Israel, it was “committed to the non-proliferation agreement,” reiterating that its nuclear work is totally peaceful.

Israel, the world’s sixth largest nuclear weapons power, maintains a policy known as “nuclear ambiguity” and continues to remain outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Minister of Culture and the Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hosseini will address the closing ceremony of the 23rd International Unity Conference to be wrapped up in Tehran on Thursday evening.

The conference opened in Tehran on the theme of “Islamic Ummah from Variation of Religions to Sectarianism” on March 2.

Almost 500 scholars from various religions in the country as well as 150 scholars from 48 world states have taken part in the international event.

The countries include France, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Syria, Tunisia, India, China, Azerbaijan, Jordan, Turkey, Qatar, UAE, Lebanon, UK, Indonesia, Afghanistan, US, Sudan, Algeria, Gambia, Egypt, Greece, Sweden, Iraq and Kuwait.

The conference seeks to prepare grounds for solidarity and union in the Islamic world, to create opportunity for exchange of views between the Muslim intellectuals, and to review Muslims’ problems and find solutions for them.

The celebrations featuring the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is also to be held during the two-day unity conference.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has arrived in Damascus to discuss with his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad the threat that Israel poses to the Middle East and beyond.

Before leaving Tehran on Thursday morning, the Iranian president announced that his talks with Assad in the Syrian capital would focus on regional and global developments.

Ahmadinejad added that Israel’s efforts to destabilize the region would also be one of the main topics of their discussions.

He mentioned that Iran and Syria already share the same stance on regional and global issues, noting that both countries stood in “the front line of standing up to” Israel.

“These days, the Zionists are constantly threatening countries and nations surrounding Palestine. They intend to drag the region into an atmosphere of serious tension,” he said

“That is why it is necessary for our two countries to begin a new series of negotiations,” he added.

Winding up, the Iranian president pointed out that talks on economic cooperation and joint investment projects would also be a part of his discussions with his Syrian counterpart.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says a promising solution to the plight of Palestinian refugees lies in their moral and legal right to return to what was once Palestine.

Assad stated that granting the right of return is an inalienable, basic human right to each individual Palestinian refugee and they should be permitted to do so at the earliest practical date.

Right of return will alleviate the problems of Palestinians living in refugee communities scattered around the Middle East, he added.

The Syrian leader made the remarks during a meeting with Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency Filippo Grandi in Damascus on Tuesday.

Grandi also called on Arab nations to throw their weight behind international efforts to lift the years-long siege of the Gaza Strip, and help end the suffering of some 1.5 million Palestinians living there.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were displaced from their homes during the Israeli-Arab wars in 1948 and 1967. They and their descendents live, many crammed into overcrowded enclaves, mainly in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon while some of them still retain old deeds and keys to homes now occupied by Israelis.

The Palestinians have been demanding the right to return to their homeland citing the United Nations General Assembly resolution 194, while Israelis are pushing for the refugees to be absorbed into their Arab host countries.

But most of the Arab nations have refused to do so, wishing neither to surrender to Israeli demands nor to upset the demographic balance of their own populations.

A member of Lebanon’s parliament has called on the country’s military to expand its defensive capability through extensive cooperation with Iran and Syria.

“Iran and Syria are the only states willing to assist our country in building a powerful military,” Nawaf al Mousawi told lawmakers at the Lebanese Majlis.

Speaking a week after the movement’s Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah indicated a new approach toward Israeli aggression against Lebanon, al Mousawi added that “neither the United States nor Europe will provide Lebanon with what it needs to defend itself from Israel.”

Nasrallah on Tuesday warned that the movement will strike Israel’s infrastructure, including its airports and refineries, in the event of any Israeli attack on Lebanon.

“If you hit Dahiyeh, we will hit Tel Aviv. If you strike Martyr Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut, we’ll strike your Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. If you hit our ports, we will hit your ports,” said the leader known for delivering on his promises.

“If you attack our refineries, we’ll attack your refineries. If you bomb our factories, we’ll bomb your factories. If you strike our power stations we will strike your power stations,” Nasrallah continued.

Tel Aviv’s military doctrine requires Israel to maintain absolute military superiority over its neighbors, a belief supported by the occupants of the White House since Harry S. Truman.

“The maintenance of Israel’s ‘qualitative military edge’ over any combination of its potential adversaries has been a cornerstone of US Middle East policy for more than a decade,” Shawn L. Twing, editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs says.

According to a 1979 Memorandum of Understanding, the United States has agreed to “endeavor to be responsive to military and economic assistance requirements of Israel.”

Washington will “continue to impose restrictions on weapons supplied by it to any country which prohibit their unauthorized transfer to any third party… and will take steps to prevent such unauthorized transfer.”

Iran’s Energy Minister Majid Namjou says seven new countries have joined the list of states that have requested to buy electricity from Iran.

Namjou declared that Russia, India, Qatar, the UAE, Jordan, Syria and Oman are the new countries that have asked Iran for electricity.

He added that Iran has the capability to turn into a regional electricity hub.

“Iran exchanges electricity with most of its neighbors and many of them are interested in increasing their electricity exchange with Iran,” Mehr news agency quoted Namjou as saying on Sunday.

“There are also trilateral talks with Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia underway, that aim to connect Iran’s electricity network to Europe,” he added.

The US state department has lifted its advisories warning American travelers of security concerns in Syria.

“After carefully assessing the current situation in Syria, we determined that circumstances didn’t merit extending the travel warning,” said Tracy Roberts Pounds, a spokeswoman at the US Embassy in Damascus.

Though Washington tries to boost ties with a country viewed as a key to peace in the region, Syria remains on the US-made list of the “countries sponsoring terrorism,” a designation made in 1979.

US observers have long insisted that the so-called US list of the states sponsoring terrorism, which included Iran, Syria, Cuba, and North Korea, is a political tool to punish states that do not submit to US regional interests.

The country also remains under US sanctions, first imposed by former US President George W. Bush and renewed by President Barack Obama in May.

The US continues to claim concerns about Syria’s nuclear activity, although the US President Barack Obama announced this week that a nominated career diplomat will become the first US ambassador to Damascus since 2005.

“We are going to have an ambassador there who will engage Syria on the full range of issues, those areas where we think there’s opportunity for cooperation and those areas where we have concerns about Syria’s ongoing activity,” Obama told reporters Friday in Washington.

After the release of the latest UN nuclear watchdog’s report on Iran’s nuclear work, Syria says it seeks to engage Iran and the West in a “constructive” dialogue.

“We are trying to engage a constructive dialogue between the two parties in order to reach a peaceful solution,” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Saturday.

He expressed Syria’s opposition to impose fresh Iran sanctions, saying, “Sanctions are not a solution (to the standoff) between Iran and the West.”

He rejected Western allegations that Iran is seeking atomic weapons and said, “Iran does not have a nuclear military program.”

On Thursday, the new head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano issued a two-sided report about Iran’s nuclear program.

The report, while critical of some aspects of Iran’s uranium enrichment, once again verified the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in the country.

Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), says its nuclear program is directed at the civilian applications of the technology. However, the West accuses the country of conducting a covert military nuclear program particularly after Iran started earlier this month to enrich uranium to the 20-percent level.

The IAEA report also confirmed that Iran is enriching uranium to the 20-percent level, required for the fuel used in the medical research reactor in Tehran.

US President Barack Obama nominates Robert Ford as Washington’s first ambassador to Syria in five years as Damascus emerges an influential peacemaker in the Middle East.

Washington recalled its envoy after Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri was assassinated in early 2005 in a bombing the West blamed on Syria.

Obama’s choice now awaits the Senate’s approval to become the diplomat to formally launch the resumption of diplomatic ties between the US and Syria.

The White House announcement comes a day before top State Department official William Burns went to Syria as part of Washington’s efforts to expand dialogue with Damascus on “all aspects” of a strained relationship.

Obama has recently turned to Syria for help with mediating between Palestinians and Israel after his tantalizing first year in office saw no breakthrough out of the current deadlock in the Middle East peace process.

The US President, however, renewed sanctions against Syria last May, accusing it of supporting terrorism, pursuing weapons of mass destruction and destabilizing neighboring Iraq.

The reopening of the US embassy in Damascus and Washington’s mellowing tone is also viewed to be part of an effort by the United States to coax Syria away from its regional ally, Iran, which Western analysts see as a ‘herculean, if not impossible mission,’ for Ford.

Former ambassador to Algeria, Ford is currently the deputy chief of mission in the US embassy in Baghdad. He has also served in Turkey, Bahrain and Egypt in his 25-year career in the US Foreign Service.

A group of Arab MPs have embarked on a tour of the Gaza Strip to show solidarity with its people and help end the rift between rival Palestinian factions.

The delegation from the Arab Parliamentary Union is comprised of 22 deputies from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Morocco, Algeria, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Sudan, Kuwait, and Oman.

“We came to represent the Arab parliaments and the Arab nation. We came, 22 deputies who represent the Arab nation from the Atlantic Ocean to the [Persian] Gulf as a united nation,” the group said in a declaration upon arriving via the Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing on Monday.

The Arab lawmakers highlighted the significance of unity among the Palestinians for achieving the “nation’s aim of establishing an independent Palestinian state.” “We want the Palestinian people to be united, as no party ever defeated its enemy when it was divided,” they urged.

Prominent Omani MP Salem Bin Ali al-Kabi, who is leading the delegation expressed “great optimism about Palestinian reconciliation,” given the increasing hopes that Hamas will sign an Egyptian-brokered reconciliation deal.

The visit comes amid signs of a breakdown in the three-year-old standoff between the Islamic Hamas movement and the rival Fatah party, following a rare visit by senior Fatah leader Nabil Sha’ath who met with Hamas’ Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and other Gaza-based officials.

On Sunday, representatives from 13 Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Fatah, held talks in Gaza to underline their commitment to end internal strife.

Palestinian civil rights groups hailed the delegation’s visit as a show of “support for Palestinian steadfastness in the face of Israeli intransigence, the tightening of the blockade, the closure of the crossings, and the ban on the entry of construction materials and all requirements for a decent life.”

During the two-day tour, the Arab deputies are scheduled to meet with Palestinian politicians as well as the families of those affected by Israel’s last year’s offensive against Gaza.

The 22-day onslaught left more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, dead and devastated a large part of the infrastructure of the impoverished area, which has been under Israeli siege since 2007.

The head of Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Walid Jumblatt vows solidarity with Syria in the face of what he calls ‘a frenzied Israeli attitude.’

“Amid the Israeli madness and radical threats, I tell the Syrian people and leadership that we are with you above all else,” he said in a statement issued by the PSP and quoted by pan-Arab A-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, the Lebanese portal Naharnet reported on Friday.

He said, “We took our decision a long time ago on who is the enemy and who is the friend … Syria is our strategic depth.”

Israel seized Syria’s strategic Golan Heights as well as the neighboring Shebaa Farms in Lebanon in the 1967 Middle East war. The Zionist regime continues to ignore the territorial claim of the respective countries over those areas.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak recently said Syria should clinch a peace deal with Israel or find itself in a “full-fledged war” with Tel Aviv. A few days later, the entity’s hawkish Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened the Syrian President Bashar Assad with another war in which “his family will lose power” on top of a military defeat for the country.

Jumblatt, like other leaders in Lebanon, expressed concerns over a new Israeli war on Lebanon amid the “failure of peace efforts” and US policies in the region.

“The entire region was in a state of chaos,” he warned. “In the presence of such chaos, the Israelis could launch a new war.”

The Leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has expressed his support for Syria’s anti-Israeli stance.

According to Nasrallah, Syria’s stance against Israel is of great significance in the current situation of the region.

The comments came after Israeli officials threatened Syria with war.

On Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“When there is another war, you will not just lose it, but you and your family will lose power,” Lieberman said. “There must be a correlation, because unfortunately, until now a military defeat did not mean a loss of power,” he added.

The remarks came three days after Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Syria should clinch a peace deal with Israel or it would find itself in a “full-fledged war” with Tel Aviv.

Nasrallah also pointed out that Washington and Tel Aviv had a hand in Wednesday’s major blast in Karbala.

A bomb planted on a parked motorcycle exploded on the outskirts of the holy city of Karbala, killing at least 23 Shia pilgrims and leaving more than 147 others wounded amid tight security before the huge religious procession on Friday.

The bomb exploded at about 11 a.m. (0800 GMT) in an area known as Ibrahimia, near the east entrance into Karbala, about 80 km (50 miles) south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

In another incident on Monday, at least 41 people were killed in northeast Baghdad when a bomb was detonated in a crowd of pilgrims heading to Karbala.

They were among hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who are walking to Karbala this week to observe the 40th day after the anniversary of Imam Hossein’s (PBUH) death.

For the commemoration, the pilgrims will converge on the city where Imam Hossein is buried after being slain over thirteen centuries ago.

Israeli officials are making efforts to ease the tension with Syria that has come about following remarks made by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

A statement issued by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lieberman on Thursday said Tel Aviv wants to engage in dialogue with Syria without pre-conditions.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has also made attempts to defuse the tension. Barak pointed out that he was not happy about Lieberman’s remarks and that an arrangement with Syria is Tel Aviv’s strategic objective.

On Thursday, Lieberman threatened to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad. “When there is another war, you will not just lose it, but you and your family will lose power,” Lieberman told a business conference at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

“There must be a correlation, because unfortunately, until now a military defeat did not mean a loss of power,” Lieberman went on to say.

The Israeli foreign minister made the remarks on Thursday one day after Assad’s meeting with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos in Damascus where the Syrian leader warned that Israel was pushing the Middle East toward a new war.

Assad made the remarks days after the Israeli defense minister said Syria should clinch a peace deal with Israel or it would find itself in a “full-fledged war” with Tel Aviv.

The Syrian president also asserted that Israel is not being serious in seeking peace and that all signs implied that Tel Aviv is “working towards a war.”

The hawkish Israeli foreign minister reacted angrily to the comments, claiming that Assad “crossed a line” by directly threatening Israel and suggesting that any future offensive against the Lebanese resistance movement would draw a response from Syria.

Lieberman’s war rhetoric comes after his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem urged Israel to “return to reason, follow the path of peace … and implement the requirements of peace fairly and comprehensively,” warning that any future war would move into Israeli cities.

Damascus summoned foreign envoys to Syria on Thursday to discuss Israel’s recent military threats against the Arab country.

The meeting was hosted by the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and headed by Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmad Arnous, a Press TV correspondent reported.

“Israel is trying to drag Syria and the rest of the Middle East into other wars. The recent remarks by extremist Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman are part of an attempt by Tel Aviv to extract itself from big crises it is currently facing…Damascus is, however, fully prepared for any surprise from Israel,” Arnous said during the meeting.

Earlier on Thursday, Israel’s firebrand Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman had warned that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would lose the war and his power, should there be another military conflict between the two sides.

“When there is another war, you will not just lose it, but you and your family will lose power,” he had said at a conference on Thursday.

The latest spat between the two neighbors emerged after Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned on Monday that if there is no peace agreement with Syria, “we might find ourselves in a forceful conflict that could lead to an all-out war.”

Syria responded furiously, with Assad saying, “it seemed Israel is working towards a war”, and Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem responding, “do not test the power of Syria since you know the war will move into your cities.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says Israel is not serious about achieving peace since all facts point out that Tel Aviv is pushing the region towards war.

“Israel is not serious in achieving peace and that everything shows it is working towards a war,” SANA news agency quoted Assad as saying in a meeting with visiting Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos in Damascus on Wednesday.

Moratinos, for his part, pointed out that resolution of crises in the Middle East is a priority to the European Union. He also expressed appreciation over Syria’s positive role in establishing security and stability in the region.

Syria maintains that Israel’s withdrawal from Golan Heights is the prerequisite for peace between Damascus and Tel Aviv. Israel captured the Golan Heights following the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed the Syrian territory in 1981.

Further raising Damascus’ ire, Israeli warplanes destroyed Syria’s al-Kibar site in 2007 blaming the country of harboring a nuclear reactor there — a claim rejected by Syria.

Under the auspices of Turkey, Israel and Syria last May launched peace talks aimed at reaching a comprehensive peace agreement, but the negotiations reached a deadlock in September 2009.

Syria then withdrew from the talks in protest at Israel’s all-out military strike against the Gaza Strip — in December 2008 and January 2009 — where at least 1,400 Palestinians lost their lives to the three-week carnage.

Zionist Israeli Defense Minister says it is crucial to clinch a peace deal with Syria before too late, saying otherwise Tel Aviv could find itself at war with Damascus.

Addressing an annual gathering of senior army officers on Monday, Ehud Barak highlighted the significance of opening negotiations while Syria perceived Israel as being strong, the Jerusalem Post website reports.

Barak described the coming year as one of many challenges but expressed optimism about opportunities to make peace with Syria and the Palestinians.

“In the absence of a deal with Syria we could reach an armed conflict that could develop into a full-fledged war,” he warned.

“As is in the Middle East, immediately after the war we will sit down and negotiate exactly what we have been talking about for the past 15 years.”

Damascus and Tel Aviv remain at odds with each other over the Golan Heights, which Tel Aviv occupied during the six-day war of 1967 and later annexed, ignoring international opposition.

Syria, an outspoken critic of Israel, has preconditioned any peace negotiation with the Tel Aviv regime with a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the strategic region.

Hamas says it has not received a new Saudi initiative to end the internal divisions among Palestinians and to achieve national reconciliation.

In an exclusive interview with Press TV on Tuesday, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau, Ezzet al-Resheq, stated that the Islamic Resistance Movement has not been informed of any such initiative.

He said that no Saudi initiative on uniting the Palestinian factions has been tabled and added that Hamas has called on Arab states to be supportive of the Egyptian role in the reconciliation efforts, which have suffered several setbacks as a result of the inflexibility and intransigence exhibited by certain figures.

“Saudi Arabia, Syria, Qatar, and Kuwait, together with other Arab nations, are keen to see unity forged among Palestinian blocs, and Hamas has high hopes for the immediate realization of the Palestinian reconciliation process,” al-Resheq said.

He added that Hamas seeks to unite the Palestinians and end the discord.

However, Fatah members are obstructing the path to unity, given that the terms of the latest agreement have been dictated by the United States and Israel, he noted.

Apparently, they have bullied acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas into procrastinating in the efforts to establish Palestinian unity and have threatened to cut off financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority if Fatah mends ties with Hamas, he said.

Al-Resheq stated that Hamas is eager to cut a prisoner swap deal with Israel, stressing that the Islamic Resistance Movement hopes to see captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit freed in exchange for long-serving Palestinian prisoners.

“Hamas has no interest in holding Shalit. The indirect talks with Israel on the prisoner swap are moving very slowly since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman are placing hurdles on the path.”

But as long as the atmosphere isn’t appropriate for the release of Palestinian prisoners, Shalit will continue to be held, the Hamas official.

Iran Khodro Company (IKCO) says it has exported 20,000 passenger cars since the beginning of the Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2009).

The IKCO expects the number to reach 36,000 cars by March, 2010.

“IKCO has exported some 3,000 CKD cars in the same period that will increase to 4500 units by this March,” said Amir-Abbas Hosseini, IKCO Vice Deputy for Export Affairs.

The regional markets including Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries as well as Switzerland and Eastern Europe states such as Bulgaria are among the top markets of IKCO, he said.

“Samand, among IKCO products, holds the largest share of the export to the European and CIS countries,” said Hosseini.

Citing the cooperation with Peugeot and other partners, he said that IKCO plans to increase its profitability and expand product portfolios in its overseas sites.

In its latest report, IDRO Export and the International Cooperation Development office ranked IKCO as the exporting the most vehicles among IDRO subsidiaries in the first half of the year.

A US congressman has announced his plans to reintroduce the Stop Terrorists Entry Program (STEP) Act into Congress, which calls for the deportation of most Iranians without permanent resident status.

The STEP Act, a bill that was originally presented in 2003, would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to bar citizens of Iran, Cuba, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the United States.

Rep. J. Gresham Barrett says he is reintroducing the STEP Act in response to the Fort Hood shooting, carried out by a US citizen, and the Christmas Day attempt to blow up an airplane over Detroit, attempted by a Nigerian national.

If passed, the bill would deport all Iranians on student visas, temporary work visas, exchange visas, and tourist visas from the United States within 60 days.

It would also make it illegal for Iranians to travel to the United States, though some exceptions could be made after “extensive federal screening.”