Iran allows visa free entry to Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tajik citizens

Iran has abolished entry visa requirements for citizens of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, along with nationals from another 29 countries, in a gesture aimed at countering “Iranophobia” around the world, reports said.

The Iranian government decision to unilaterally allow visa free entry to citizens of 32 countries was announced on Wednesday, according to Iranian media reports.

“The government intends to open the country’s doors to the world,” Tourism Minister Ezzatollah Zarghami was quoted as saying.

“And this decision is both courageous and deliberate by the government.”

He added that the decision was aimed “to foil negative advertisements, rumors, and fear-mongering about Iran”.

The Tehran Times newspaper website said the move is expected to promote tourism to Iran and “put an end to negative propaganda and Iranophobia”.

Among the 32 countries affected by the decision are India, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and others. The only European countries on the list are Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia and Belarus.

The Iranian government is also abolishing visa requirements for tourist groups from Russia.

Kazakh nationals have been allowed to visit Iran visa-free since November 2022.

According to the Iranian Tourism Ministry, in the first eight months of the year Iran received 4.4 million foreign visitors, a 48 percent rise on the same period of last year.

Visits by nationals of the member countries of the Economic Cooperation Organization (the five Central Asian nations, Azerbaijan and Afghanistan) reached 1.1 million in the first six months of the year, increasing by 55 percent on the previous year, according to official figures.

Central Asia is one of Iran’s foreign policy priorities. The Central Asian governments, however, fear export of radical political Islam from Iran.

In view of that, the Iranian government has been focusing on economic and cultural cooperation. It is particularly interested in regional infrastructure projects which could allow the landlocked Central Asian nations to get access to the sea via Iran.

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