Portugal has suspended the issuance of entry visas for Iranian nationals for unspecified security reasons, Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
Answering a question from a committee member 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, lawmaker from the conservative CDS-PP party, said: "We received information that visas for Iranians had been suspended for two or three weeks, and we just wanted to confirm that."
He would not say what the source of that original information was or whether any Iranian nationals had complained about the situation.
Questioned by reporters after the committee, Santos Silva said the suspension had "nothing to do with the quality of Portugal's bilateral relations with Tehran."
"It was a temporary suspension and we hope to resume very shortly," he added, quoted by Portuguese news agency Lusa.