US President Donald Trump on Tuesday expanded the United States’ travel ban to include nationals from seven additional countries, among them Syria, as well as holders of Palestinian Authority (PA) passports.
According to a White House proclamation, the restrictions aim to prevent foreigners who could “undermine or destabilize [the US] culture, government, institutions or founding principles.”
The decision comes just days after two US soldiers and a civilian were killed in Syria. Washington has recently sought to rehabilitate ties with Damascus following the fall of former President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime.
Syrian authorities said the attack’s perpetrator was a security officer dismissed for “extremist Islamist ideas.”
The Trump administration had already informally barred PA passport holders, describing the measure as part of a broader policy aligned with Israel’s opposition to foreign recognition of a Palestinian state, which several Western countries, including France and Britain, have backed.
Also added to the full travel ban list are Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Laos. Partial travel restrictions were introduced for citizens of several other African states - including Nigeria, the continent’s most populous nation - as well as Black-majority Caribbean countries.
Somalia remains on the list of countries completely barred from the US, along with Afghanistan, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Sudan, and Yemen.
Last month, Trump widened restrictions on Afghan nationals, suspending a program that had allowed US-allied Afghan fighters to immigrate, following an incident in which a former Afghan soldier with post-traumatic stress shot two National Guard troops in Washington.
Countries newly facing partial restrictions include Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Mauritania, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia and Zimbabwe.