[JURIST] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [official profile; BBC profile] has said that he opposes a bill, passed during a preliminary reading in the Iran parliament earlier this month, that would require every American visitor in Iran to be fingerprinted upon entry. Ahmadinejad said Monday that Americans are welcome in Iran [JURIST news archive], and that Iran only opposes US policy, not US citizens. The bill was proposed as a reaction to US regulations, implemented in 2002, requiring every Iranian to be fingerprinted upon arrival in the US. Currently, only Canadians are exempt from the US-VISIT program [official backgrounder], which requires that all visitors provide fingerprints and photographs that are kept in a lifetime travel dossiers.

Earlier in October, Iran announced strong opposition to the Iran Freedom Support Act [HR 6198 text, PDF], a bill signed into law [JURIST report] by President Bush that authorizes US sanctions against foreign governments that provide support for Iran's nuclear program or contribute towards the country's armament. Iran also preemptively denounced possible Security Council sanctions [JURIST report] that have been threatened for failing to cease uranium enrichment past a August 31 deadline imposed by Security Council Resolution 1696 [PDF text, JURIST report]. AP has more.