The project aims to promote a plan for abroad Iranian researchers as “supporting technological activities and startups”, “postdoctoral facilities”, “supporting employment in innovation centers and accelerators as a trainer and consultant”, “providing facilities for opportunity studies”, “providing housing facilities”, “supporting employment in reputable domestic companies”, “support for lectures and specialized workshops” and “support for cooperation as invited and appointed professors”.

It is estimated that about one percent of all Iranian students are studying abroad, which is not above the international average of around 3 percent.

Before the Islamic revolution in 1979, some 170,000 students were studying in the country and 100,000 students abroad.

According to official statistics, the number of students studying in the country has reached over 4.5 million while there are currently 48,000 students studying in other countries.

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In a statement on Saturday, Mousavi said a complaint could be lodged against such conduct at human rights courts, the Foreign Ministry website reported.

“Such absolutely discriminatory measures that are taken only because of the race, nationality or maybe the faith of people are totally rejected in terms of the international human rights laws and principles, and would result in accountability for the US government,” he added.

“Since those (Iranian) individuals have been questioned by the US border guards and security forces about their political and theological beliefs and their accounts in the virtual space have been also investigated coercively, such measure amounts to an example of inquisition and a blatant violation of human rights,” the spokesman deplored.

Mousavi further condemned the US Customs and Border Protection’s harassment of the Iranian citizens, saying, “Such measures against the Iranians are part of the US regime’s hostile and vindictive policy towards Iran and its identity and existence that transpires once in the shape of the decision to ban Iranians from entering the US, once in the (form of) threat of attack on Iran’s cultural and civilizational centers, another time in the cowardly assassination of the mythic hero of the fight against terrorism, and most recently in another form in the harassment of Iranians at the borders of the US”

“Such behavior from the U.S. government could be definitely brought to and sued by the human rights tribunals,” the spokesman concluded.

US border officers working at Canadian border crossings were directed to stop travelers of Iranian descent for interrogation following the U.S. assassination of top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, CNN reported on Friday, citing an unnamed Customs and Border Protection officer.

More than 60 people were held for additional questioning in Washington State, the New York Times reported earlier this month, citing advocacy groups and accounts from travelers.

It came in the days following the assassination of Soleimani on January 3, after which Iran threatened to retaliate against the United States.

The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) press secretary Matt Leas said in a January 5 statement “social media posts that CBP is detaining Iranian-Americans and refusing their entry into the US because of their country of origin are false. Reports that DHS/CBP has issued a related directive are also false.”

An email sent to immigration attorney Leonard Saunders by a Washington state CBP officer tells a different story. The officer claimed that there was indeed such a directive which was only lifted, “as soon as it hit the national news.”

“This thing that happened was Seattle Field Office wide,” the officer wrote. “Multiple Americans of Persian birth were held and interrogated at length.”

The officer said he was involved in the questioning of Iranian-born travelers.

“We asked them standard counter-terrorism inspection questions. Was there an Immigration reason for detaining them? No. Was there a Customs reason for detaining them? No. Was the sole reason we detained and questioned them due to their national origin? Yes. Was it the right thing to do? No. Where (sic) their constitutional rights violated? Probably.”

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The US Customs and Border Control (CBP) detained at length and questioned the Iranians who were returning to the US after attending a concert on Saturday in the border city of Vancouver in Canada, the CAIR said.

Other Iranians, who have been residing in the United States for years, were denied entry to the US.

“Many more are turned around at the border and refused the opportunity to enter the United States due to a lack of capacity for Customs and Border Patrol to detain them,” CAIR’s Washington chapter said in a joint news release with Hoda Katebi, a community organizer and fashion blogger.

In a tweet, Washington Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal said she was “deeply disturbed” by the reports of the detentions.

“This is a HUGE DEAL. Iranians who have been born and raised in the USA are literally being ILLEGALLY DETAINED for 11+ hours for NO REASON & interrogated with intrusive and inappropriate questions about political opinions, what courses they or their parents studied in college,” Katebi said in a tweet.

CAIR noted that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had issued a national order to CBP to “report” and detain anyone with Iranian heritage entering the US who was deemed potentially suspicious, regardless of their citizenship status.

CBP denied that it was detaining individuals because of their country of origin.

“Social media posts that CBP is detaining Iranian-Americans and refusing their entry into the US because of their country of origin are false. Reports that DHS/CBP has issued a related directive are also false,” CBP spokesperson Michael Friel told Middle East Eye in an email.

Masih Fouladi, the executive director of  CAIR Washington, said the reports of detentions “are extremely troubling and potentially constitute illegal detentions of United States citizens.”

Mana Mostatabi, communications director at the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), told Middle East Eye news portal that potentially as many as 150 individuals have been detained, with some being held for 11-16 hours.

Citing initial research conducted by NIAC, Mostatabi said those detained were asked about their relatives, occupations, birthdays, the last time they visited Iran and their opinions on current tensions.

“The common denominator is Iranian heritage, which should raise immediate concerns of discriminatory and illegal actions targeting on the basis of national origin,” Mostatabi said.

Mostatabi added that there were additional unconfirmed reports of detentions at San Francisco Airport and Los Angeles International Airport.

The detentions come amid growing tensions between the US and Iran, especially after Washington assassinated a top Iranian commander in an airstrike in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Friday.

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