The Home Affairs Ministry is prepared to impose foreign visa requirement on Middle Eastern countries' citizens as proposed by the National Security Council (NSC), to curb Islamic State (IS) militant threats in Malaysia.

Its deputy minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed said to date the NSC had not submitted the proposal to the ministry, but the ministry was prepared to implement the move upon instructions from the council.

"That (visa) is under NSC's jurisdiction. So far the ministry has not recieved any directives. We will act as soon as we get the directive," he told Bernama in Kuala Lumpur today.

Nur Jazlan added that the ministry would leave it to the NSC to decide on which Middle Eastern countries came under the move.

NSC secretary Alias Ahmad yesterday (July 9) had proposed that the government imposed visa requirement on citizens from Middle Eastern countries to curb IS militant activity in Malaysia.

He said ensuring citizens from countries affected by unrest or countries identified as the places where IS militants obtained visas, was important to monitor entry of individuals involved in militant activity.

He said so far Malaysia had imposed visa requirements on 34 of 201 countries, mainly from the African continent.

- Bernama