Security reasons: Portugal suspends visas for Iranians

Portugal has suspended the issuance of entry visas for Iranian nationals for unspecified security reasons, Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva said on Tuesday, adding the move was not related to bilateral relations between the two countries.

Answering a question from a lawmaker at parliamentary committee on whether such a move had been taken, Santos Silva said during the televised meeting: “Yes, we suspended those for security reasons ... I will provide explanations later, but not publicly”.

“Portugal does not play around with entry into its territory,” he added, without disclosing when the decision was taken.


The chairman declared the meeting closed after about two hours without further off-camera testimony.

Joao Goncalves Pereira, the lawmaker from the conservative CDS-PP party who asked the question, told Reuters: “We received information that visas for Iranians had been suspended for two or three weeks, and we just wanted to confirm that.”