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Trafficking In Iran; A Major Concern

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Iran Focus     |     By SIA RAJABI     |    APRIL 22, 2021

The trafficking of women in Iran is a real problem, with most of the victims smuggled out of the country from the provinces of Hormozgan, Sistan and Baluchestan, and Khuzestan

Lawyer Hossein Komeili said: “In Sistan and Baluchestan, where forced marriages are common, women are given to men in Afghanistan and Pakistan. [It’s a form of] organized trafficking [where] corruption in the bureaucracy [and cooperation between] “smugglers and the police” [make the issue worse].”

Of course, the government hides the relevant statistics, so it’s impossible to know for sure how many victims there are, but the state-run ROKNA News Agency says that the women are moved under the pretext of finding employment, smuggled into countries, and forced to become sex workers because their identification documents are stolen before they even leave Iran.

Despite its opacity, the government is still considered tier 3 by the US State Department for failing to make the minimum effort to combat human trafficking and the US said that the domestic Iran trafficking networks appear to enjoy anonymity.

One Iranian strategist, Hassan Abbasi, publically exposed the trafficking of women to other Middle Eastern countries as far back as 2008, condemning the President, the Information Minister, the Expediency Discernment Council, the Revolutionary Guards, the Bassij, the Judiciary Chief, the commander of the State Security Force, and Tehran’s mayor for failing to address the issue.

But, of course, one of the main reasons for the increased rate of trafficking is poverty because people are desperate to escape the hardships in Iran, tricked with thoughts of a better life. This is worse in more deprived areas.

Komeili said: “The University of Tehran has a law clinic in the Oudlajan area of Tehran. A woman came to the clinic and said, ‘My daughter has been missing for 2 weeks! Her friends said she went abroad.’ We asked, ‘What did you do in these 2 weeks?’ I did nothing. I thought she was going abroad to earn money and send it to us,” the mother replied. Therefore, the principal reason for human trafficking is poverty, and victims fall into traffickers’ traps thinking they are finding jobs. Laws must be changed, and the victim must not be seen as a criminal.”

While sex trafficking is a major part of this criminal industry, we shouldn’t forget about the nasty blood and organ trafficking business, whereby victims (including children) are held for some time abroad before they are killed for their blood and organs.

https://www.iranfocus.com/en/human-rights/46810-trafficking-in-iran-a-major-concern/

 

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Joe Biden’s Secret Weapon for Resetting Iran Policy

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VOA can play a crucial role in outreach to the Iranian people. But the White House should get serious about fixing its problems.

POLITICO     |     ILAN BERMAN     |     02/17/2021

On Inauguration Day, Michael Pack, the controversial CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), became the very first personnel casualty of the Joe Biden administration. In the days that followed, Pack-appointed leaders at the USAGM-managed Voice of America (VOA) and other USAGM entities, including Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia, were also summarily axed.

Pack’s short tenure at the helm of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM)—which he headed from his Senate confirmation in June 2020 until Inauguration Day—was rife with controversy over political overreach and skewed priorities. It’s not surprising, then, that critics have hailed Pack’s departure, and the personnel reshuffle that followed, as an overdue course correction that has brought back normalcy to a well-functioning bureaucracy.

But the problems at USAGM go much deeper than a controversial CEO. In fact, some of Pack’s initiatives—such as trying to impose accountability among unruly government entities and to rectify security clearance irregularities among employees and contractors—were aimed at fixing problems that ailed U.S. broadcasting before he ever arrived at USAGM’s headquarters on Independence Avenue. And it’s more crucial now than ever to fix some of these deep-rooted problems, as the Biden administration attempts to reshape U.S. foreign policy.

There is one place in particular where USAGM has a crucial role to play in U.S. foreign policy: Iran. While many aspects of the Biden administration’s approach to foreign affairs remain unclear, it’s already evident that its Iran policy will be a major departure from that of the Trump administration. Whereas the “maximum pressure” of the Trump era saw Iran face growing political and economic isolation, the new Biden White House has made clear that it is planning a broad diplomatic push to reengage with the Islamic Republic.

In its current state, VOA’s Persian service can’t be of much use in that mission. It ranks as one of the most out-of-date, inefficient and scandal-ridden broadcast services administered by USAGM, plagued by everything from poor management to lackluster content. Such deficiencies have hindered successive administrations from fulfilling the agency’s broader mission of bringing reliable information to unfree societies. And they have prevented Washington from effectively communicating with the most important constituency inside Iran: the Iranian people themselves.

That represents a critical shortcoming. Fundamentally, the long game in Iran has always been about the Iranian public square, and not the country’s aging and exceedingly unpopular clerical regime. It is the people of Iran who will help determine the geopolitical trajectory of the country over the long term. The United States has every interest in helping to shape that trajectory in a more pluralistic and free political direction. Doing so requires meaningful engagement with the Iranian people, together with an upgrading of the essential tools—such as VOA Persian—to make that priority possible.

Perhaps the most basic problem relating to U.S. government broadcasting toward Iran is that it represents something of a black box. While it has become commonplace for officials to claim that U.S. programming is influential among Iranian people, there is in fact little empirical data that this is actually the case. Credible, independent third-party assessments of the true reach and appeal of VOA within the Islamic Republic are conspicuously absent from the public sphere. At the same time, extensive interviews with longtime observers of Persian-language media carried out in recent months suggest that U.S. outreach is increasingly marginal and irrelevant to most Iranians, eclipsed by more compelling and dynamic private sector alternatives, such as Manoto, a London-based Persian-language general entertainment channel, and the Saudi-funded Iran International channel.

That amounts to a major blind spot. Credibly gauging the true level of VOA’s popularity among Iranian audiences (via social media metrics, direct telephonic surveys, and assorted other means) is an essential prerequisite to determining the true worth of the current U.S. investment in broadcasting toward Iran. Simply put, American lawmakers need to know exactly how many Iranians are tuning in to VOA’s Persian-language broadcasts in order to gauge whether the service still remains a “good bet” and a prudent use of taxpayer dollars. Simply taking the word of government employees who rely on those same funds for their paychecks just won’t do.

The second problem plaguing VOA Persian relates to content. The service today suffers from what might be called “content confusion,” with programming encompassing a scattered and ineffective mix of news, analysis and culture and entertainment programming such as reruns of CNN’s once-popular Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. By contrast, VOA’s contemporary market competitors have far more clear-cut and well-defined roles. Manoto, for instance, is sought after by Iranian audiences for its cultural

entertainment content, like cooking and music shows, while Iran International is widely watched for breaking news and analysis.

This state of affairs, moreover, has been made worse in recent years by the cancellation of popular VOA political satire and cultural commentary shows like Parasit and Ofogh, which had previously succeeded in effectively bridging these categories. U.S. officials should reassess the VOA “mission” vis-à-vis Iran–what it is, exactly, that they are trying to say to Iranian audiences–and then reformulate programming to better match those objectives.

Third, U.S. programming toward Iran currently lags woefully in its reaction time. VOA Persian has persistently failed to respond to foreign-policy developments in a timely, impactful manner—much to the detriment of its credibility, and that of the United States as a whole. A particularly egregious example took place following the January 2020 killing of notorious IRGC General Qassem Soleimani, a major event with profound implications for Iran’s regional position and U.S.-Iranian strategic competition. According to former broadcasting officials, it took nearly a full day for VOA to cover the event—a lag that allowed the Iranian regime to monopolize and shape the narrative surrounding Soleimani’s death.

Such a state of affairs is simply unacceptable. The United States needs to be able to credibly, rapidly and effectively tell its side of the story relating to breaking developments in relations between the U.S. and Iran. Developing this sort of capability is essential to debunking regime falsehoods and mischaracterizations about America, as well as explaining to Iranian audiences the strategic rationale behind the latest U.S. diplomatic decision or foreign policy action. Reorganizing programming, as well as altering administrative functions, such as expanding hours of operation, will enhance VOA Persian’s ability to rapidly respond to events.

This ability to respond quickly is important for cultural programming, too. Among VOA’s most influential programs of the recent past is the short documentary and discussion show known as Tablet. Run by prominent women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad, Tablet focuses on the struggle for social and gender equality within Iran, and is—by all available metrics—one of the service’s most successful programs, garnering millions of viewers and ongoing engagement on social media. Yet Tablet is currently undervalued and limited to just one 30-minute weekly program which is subsequently rebroadcast at later dates. Such a structure makes it difficult for U.S. coverage to keep pace with the rapidly changing socio-cultural conversation within the Islamic Republic, and gives the appearance of the United States being out of touch with the Iranian public.

The situation surrounding Tablet is a microcosm of the larger problem. Meaningful programs—those that tap into the trends and attitudes that prevail among Iran’s citizenry—do indeed exist. But because they are built around an existing (and rigid) schedule of programming, they tend to be unresponsive to the rapidly changing human terrain within Iran. Ramping up a more aggressive production schedule for Tablet and other meaningful shows, such as the newer Chess, a political discussion roundtable program, would allow VOA to better reflect the latent dynamism of Iranian society.

Finally, and perhaps most profoundly from an audience standpoint, current U.S. outreach to Iran is simply not aesthetically appealing. Low production values and amateurish appearance contribute greatly to VOA’s failure to win “hearts and minds” among Iranians, notwithstanding the service’s inherent credibility as the authoritative “voice” of the United States. This becomes especially glaring when VOA programming is compared to its market competitors in the Persian media space—all of which (even Iranian regime broadcasts) offer more dynamic visuals and content than U.S. efforts currently do. In order to make VOA programs distinguishable from, and superior to, their competitors, the U.S. government needs to invest in significant upgrades to the appearance, professionalism and content of the service. In particular, the service could benefit from the creation of new, original programming geared specifically toward greater engagement of Iranian youth, who represent a significant segment of Iran’s 85-million-person population.

By their nature, instituting the reforms and upgrades outlined above will be a long-term endeavor—one that is likely to stretch across multiple presidential administrations. Even so, there are a number of near-term actions that the Biden administration can take now that would jump-start the process, with immediate results.

The first is to institute personnel changes. Over the years, many VOA Persian employees have come to be regarded in a deeply negative light by Iranian-American activists and regime critics alike, who have chafed at their overt political biases and their failure to properly communicate U.S. policy. In order for it to be taken seriously by outside observers, any reform effort—which can be driven by a new USAGM CEO with input from the White House—will require meaningful changes at both the reporter/editor and senior management levels. Moreover, such personnel changes will need to be publicized and promoted as a way of clearly communicating to outside critics that the U.S. government has heard their complaints about staffing and is serious about responding to them.

Another key priority for the new White House must be to encourage VOA to better leverage its inherent advantage: access. VOA’s close geographic proximity to the U.S. Congress and assorted executive branch agencies in Washington remains woefully underutilized by its Persian service. Little effort is currently made by VOA reporters and management to seek out interviews, commentary and insights from officials and subject matter experts as a means of giving the proper context to U.S. policy.

That is a grave error. As numerous studies have borne out, Iran’s population is young, dynamic and vibrant. It’s also westward-looking, and keenly attuned to America as a symbol of everything that their current, repressive government isn’t. VOA outreach presently doesn’t dwell on the institutions, processes and values that makes the United States so different from Iran’s clerical regime.

It needs to. In order to shed greater light on official U.S. decisions, more sustained engagement with officials by VOA Persian journalists and reporters is essential. Such a focus would also help correct disinformation about the U.S. government promoted by the Iranian regime. It would also give relevant U.S. lawmakers more confidence that American outreach toward Iran is properly capturing their views and is representative of U.S. policy—a state of affairs which, sadly, does not currently exist.

VOA Persian has an important role to play in the current administration’s mission of re-engaging with the Islamic Republic, and Biden would be wise to use it. But first, the service needs to be fixed, top to bottom. Whether or not the president delivers on that goal will be a key test of how serious he is about restarting a real dialogue not just with the Iranian regime, but with the Iranian people as well.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/02/17/joe-bidens-secret-weapon-for-resetting-iran-policy-469122

 

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The Iranian Regime Alone Is to Blame for Iran’s Coronavirus Crisis.

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The mullahs are trying to blame American sanctions. Don’t fall for it.
Human Events    |    By Hanif Jazayeri    |    March 17, 2020

On Tuesday, the Iranian regime’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, claimed that “unlawful US sanctions” were draining Iran’s economic resources and impairing its ability to fight against the deadly coronavirus. In recent days, the Iranian regime’s apologists in the West have echoed this narrative; they blame the Trump Administration for limiting Tehran’s ability to fend off the virus.

But Iran’s humanitarian tragedy has very little to do with U.S. policy. It’s the Iranian regime itself that has done the most to contribute to the rapid spread of COVID-19 both in Iran and, more recently, from Iran to other parts of the world—including the United States. The systematic cover-up, deceit, and inaction by Iran’s regime in recent weeks have already cost at least 5500 lives. Moreover, through both sheer incompetence and deliberate deceit, the regime has turned Iran into the epicenter of the coronavirus in the Middle East.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani bear direct responsibility for this crime against humanity. U.S. media groups and lawmakers should be careful not to fall for the regime’s attempts to misuse the coronavirus fight to call for the lifting of U.S. sanctions and ending the ‘Maximum Pressure’ campaign. On the contrary, politicians on both sides of the aisle should come together to pressure the regime to stop acting as a barrier to U.S. humanitarian assistance to the Iranian people.

DELIBERATE NEGLIGENCE ON BEHALF OF THE IRAN’S REGIME
Let’s consider some of the regime’s recent actions:

1: Unlike other countries that quickly moved to restrict travel to the geographic source of the COVID-19 virus, Mahan Air, owned by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), has continued flights to China and back. The regime has prioritized its line of trade and political partnership with China over the lives of its citizens.

2: Instead of appealing for vigilance, Iranian officials embarked on a systematic cover-up of the existence of the coronavirus in Iran. At least a dozen senior officials flat-out denied that there were any cases of the virus in Iran in early February, prompting Iranian doctors to post video clips on social media to expose the regime’s deceit. The authorities responded by threatening “those who publish fake news about the Coronavirus” with imprisonment and flogging. Their Cyber Police announced it had apprehended dozens of people for “spreading rumors” about the spread of coronavirus in Iran. The official death toll from the virus currently stands at 988, while the regime’s political opposition, People’s Mojahedin (Mujahedin-e-Khalq or MEK), places it at more than 5500. The MEK, the largest group in the democratic opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), has published shocking footage of people passing out on the streets from untreated infections.

3: Iran’s regime also refuses to quarantine the sites of the virus outbreak. The regime’s President Hassan Rouhani announced explicitly that Iran has no plans to quarantine any cities. Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli told a press conference on February 23th that while some people had recommended that the regime postpone Parliamentary elections, “but as the official in charge, I did not accept any of these (recommendations).”
4: The regime refuses to provide adequate medical aid to the public. Medical resources and equipment are essentially in the hands of the IRGC and regime officials. Ordinary patients are deprived of basic needs, such as masks and disinfectant liquids; the IRGC sells them on the black market at 10 times the actual price.

The democratic opposition to the regime, the NCRI, says the authorities resorted to the cover-up to ensure a higher turnout for their marches during the annual celebration commemorating the 1979 revolution. The regime was also desperate for participation in its sham Parliamentary election in February—a periodic ritual the government relies on to assert legitimacy. Had they acknowledged the existence of the coronavirus within their borders earlier, they would have jeopardized turnout to these key state events.

Meanwhile, the deliberate attempt to keep people in the dark led to the virus rapidly spreading to all parts of Iran—and even to neighboring countries. Iran’s Coronavirus crisis is not just limited to its borders. At least 16 countries have confirmed they were passed on the coronavirus by people that came from Iran. It was also confirmed that a woman who contracted the virus while traveling in Iran was the first confirmed patient who brought the virus to New York City.

THE REGIME AND THE REGIME ALONE IS TO BLAME
Twice in recent days, the U.S. openly declared its readiness to help Iran in the fight against the pandemic. But both offers were promptly rejected by the regime. The first attempt came in a statement from the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on February 28th: “The United States stands with the people of Iran during the public health crisis caused by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The U.S. Government is prepared to assist the Iranian people in their response efforts. This offer of support to the Iranian people, which has been formally conveyed to Iran through the Government of Switzerland, underscores our ongoing commitment to address health crises and prevent the spread of infectious diseases.”

“If we can help the Iranians with this problem, we are certainly willing to do so… All they have to do is ask. We will have great professionals over there.”

The next day, Pompeo’s offer was turned down by the Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi who dismissed Pompeo’s remarks as “hypocritical and deceitful propaganda” to “deceive the world’s public opinion.”

The second attempt came from President Donald Trump himself, who announced on February 29th that the U.S. was willing to aid Iran with its outbreak if the country asked for assistance. “If we can help the Iranians with this problem, we are certainly willing to do so… All they have to do is ask. We will have great professionals over there,” President Trump said. But Iranian state-run news agencies announced Rouhani had once again dismissed the U.S.’s offer, demanding that Washington lift sanctions instead.

Meanwhile, the regime continues to spread misinformation and propaganda. Supreme Leader Khamenei has dismissed the pandemic as “not that big a deal,” even calling it a potential “blessing.” Iranians, he said, should pray against the virus “as prayer can solve many problems.” Simultaneously, top Iranian officials, led by the Supreme Leader, are insinuating that the coronavirus is some sort of biological weapon created by the West to target Iran. Iranian state television even broadcasted a segment on March 11th, claiming the coronavirus is an “ethnic weapon” designed to kill people based on their race.

Iran’s people, of course, don’t buy any of this. They (rightly) blame the regime for mishandling the crisis. Social media is full of video clips of slogans graffitied on the walls, saying: “Khamenei the sinister mullah, you are the real virus” and “The mullahs’ Coronavirus is the killer of the people.”

The Iranian people blame the regime and the regime alone for all their hardships and suffering, and they support America’s maximum pressure campaign against their dictators.

https://humanevents.com/2020/03/17/the-iranian-regime-alone-is-to-blame-for-irans-coronavirus-crisis/

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They are fulfilling the mullahs’ criteria

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As an Iranian American who has endured the murder or execution of five members of her family by the Islamic Republic of Iran, it is impossible not to recognize the footprints of the clerical regime in the sources of information used by NBC in its report regarding Iran. The so-called experts on Iran that the agency mainly references are well known and well-established advocates of the Ayatollahs’ regime, if not direct agents.

The sincerity and accuracy of the reports and articles used by NBC can be unequivocally questioned from such sources as Hooman Majd, a voice for the Iranian regime (whether he is registered with FARA or not). Majd becomes an NBC contributor and tries to exculpate the ruling regime of its terrorist plot on the NCRI’s annual convention on June 30, 2018. This is a recognized scenario orchestrated by Javad Zarif, Iran’s Foreign Minister, and his spokesman. Majd and Benjamin try to cast ambiguity and doubt about the perpetrators, despite the glaring fact that a top Iranian diplomat is in a Belgian jail for his direct role!

Not too long ago, a renowned reporter of one of the most prestigious magazines in Europe, Der Spiegel, was caught red-handed publishing fake news on the US border situation. The same reporter had previously fabricated false news on the Iranian Resistance and MEK members in order to demonize them. This is exactly what Danial Benjamin is doing to obscure the facts on the MEK’s past by falsely accusing them of having the blood of Americans on their hands.

After 40 years of lies and deception, I thought the Islamic Republic’s penchant for nuclear weapons, missiles, meddling in the Middle East, support for terrorism and horrifying human rights record would be an open book. Perhaps the advocates of appeasing this regime are shamed by its record, so the only ploy left to get close to Tehran is to highlight your animosity towards its main opposition, MEK. Why? because the MEK is the viable opposition, and is the regime’s red line that no one can cross; other issues are negotiable. I am convinced that this media outlet, along with its contributors, are fulfilling the mullahs’ criteria.

Lila Ahmadi
Arlington, Virginia

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US Congress and the Administration Need to Act on Iran

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Townhall   |   Bruce McColm   |   Dec 27, 2018

In the days and months following massive protests across Iran that erupted in December 2017, the regime’s vulnerability became clear. The anniversary of that nationwide uprising is approaching, and one year later, the anti-regime uprising has grown, in visibility and viability, coalescing into a unified movement that now includes virtually all sectors of Iranian society. The days of the ruling theocracy are numbered. The people of Iran are demanding regime change.

The thousands who took to the streets in over 140 cities across Iran a year ago have evolved into a sustainable, anti-government movement designed to bring down the regime. Truck drivers, factory workers, farmers, teachers, and many others previously fearful of vocalizing their opposition, are now front and center.

Driven by disastrous economic policies, skyrocketing inflation, unemployment, political corruption, and the omnipresent repression, their political demands strike to the heart of the matter. The regime has no structure or plan to alleviate these gnawing maladies; only to repress dissent. The attempts to terrorize dissidents with mass arrests and killings, then to contain the protests by shutting down internet access to social media platforms like Instagram and Telegram, which spread word of protest actions, have failed. Supreme Leader Khamenei has no will to fix the problems, and no way to contain the unrest. Contrary to the views of some in the West, his regime is a fragile, failing state.

One familiar premise over the past four decades of theocratic rule has been for the authoritarian government, whenever threatened, to point a finger at dissidents and legitimate protesters and label them terrorists. In particular, top officials of the clerical regime, from Khamenei on down, berate the leading opposition, the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK) for its organizational and leadership capabilities. In an effort to contain the mounting protests in Iran, Tehran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, phoned his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, to demand action against MEK “terrorists” in France whom he accused of fomenting ongoing strife. Macron declined.

Simultaneous with its attempts to terrorize the resistance units that protesters have organized within the country, the regime in Tehran is sponsoring terrorist activity abroad. With the full knowledge and support of the Supreme Leader, the regime’s president, and the collaboration of the Foreign Ministry, Tehran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) uses diplomatic facilities as cover in targeting MEK activists in the West.

This year four terror plots were uncovered, including the bombing of an opposition rally outside Paris where tens of thousands were in attendance, American officials among them. An Iranian diplomat at the embassy in Vienna was arrested in Germany, charged with personal involvement in the foiled plot, and extradited to Belgium to face trial.

The regime has also attempted espionage within the U.S. that targets Americans linked to the parliament-in-exile, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and MEK. In August of this year, two men identified as agents of Iran were arrested and charged with spying for Tehran.

These foiled terror attacks abroad only focus the spotlight on Tehran’s own brand of terrorism at home. In small and large demonstrations throughout Iran, ordinary citizens are taking to the streets to demand change. The alternative to the Iranian regime is democracy, and the opposition National Council of Resistance coalition is the way forward toward a democratic Iran. Together with the People’s Mojahedin, its pivotal force, they form an organized movement inside Iran that also enjoys strong international support.

The NCRI already possesses the key characteristics necessary to form an alternative to the current government in Iran. Led by its President-elect, Maryam Rajavi, the NCRI has declared a 10-point Plan delineating its platform for future Iran. Iranians want a republic, not an Islamic republic led by the mullahs. With 37 years of experience and dedication, the NCRI has proven itself as the genuine alternative that can achieve democracy and create a free, modern society.

Iran’s people have reached the end of their rope, and will no longer tolerate a regime built on suppression, financial malfeasance, and terror. The anti-regime movement, guided by the MEK in Iran and represented by the NCRI abroad, is solidifying its strategies and gaining ground daily. The message resonating from Iran is that the regime, desperate and terrified of the mounting opposition, cannot forestall its inevitable overthrow.

This is the time for the U.S. Congress and administration to hold the Ayatollah and his regime responsible for their terrorist acts and human rights abuses, and to endorse the Iranian people’s efforts to achieve democracy and freedom.

 

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A chance to embrace Iranian people’s democratic aspirations

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Shirin Nariman     |    Jan 28, 2017

With the change of guard at the White House, it seems clear that the administration of President Donald Trump will be eager to execute major foreign policy shifts. A focal point of those changes will be the approach to Iran.

Years of “engagement” and “dialogue” with Tehran’s rulers have emboldened a bullying regime to extend its tentacles of terror outward, while continuing to trample on the human rights of Iranian citizens.

In his efforts to revise U.S. policy towards the Tehran regime to better align it with America’s values and strategic interests, Mr. Trump will not be alone. Such a policy must reject engagement with the turbaned tyrants in favor of embracing the Iranian people’s democratic aspirations.

That approach would win the resounding support not just of the Iranian-American community, but also of Congress, which overwhelmingly opposed the Iran nuclear deal.

Earlier this month, we were encouraged to hear that nearly two dozen former top American officials had urged Mr. Trump to work with Iran’s opposition in order to send a strong message to Tehran.

The letter signed by 23 former officeholders specifically calls on the president to consult with the main coalition of opposition groups, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

The longest-standing political coalition in Iran’s history, the NCRI represents a broad grouping of democratic organizations and personalities. Founded in 1981 in Tehran and now based in Paris, it embodies a microcosm of Iranian society, with representatives from ethnic and religious minorities such as Zoroastrians, Jews, Christians, and Kurds.

***

The main component of the NCRI is the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), a progressive Muslim movement that for the past 50 years has waged a valiant struggle against Islamic fundamentalism and extremism, calling for democracy and separation of church and state.

The NCRI’s platform calls for a secular, democratic, and non-nuclear Iran that respects international law, human rights, and gender equality. Women comprise 50 percent of the council’s members, and its president-elect is also a woman, Maryam Rajavi.

As Mrs. Rajavi has reiterated, “We want a non‐nuclear Iran, free of weapons of mass destruction.”

The letter by American experts and former policymakers states that given “the opportunity to engage directly with the NCRI, unfiltered by regime propaganda, U.S. officials will learn that in the 1980s, as a political strategy to challenge Iran’s harsh fundamentalism that denies all rights to women, the resistance adopted a policy of gender equality — rare in the Muslim world — and elevated women to leadership roles.”

***

The letter was signed by a truly bipartisan group of American statesmen, including Tom Ridge, former Homeland Security secretary under President George W. Bush; Gen. Jim Jones, former national security advisor to President Obama; Gen. Hugh Shelton, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani; former Sen. Joseph Lieberman; and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

This stellar list of Americans proves once again that when it comes to a more decisive policy on Iran, Washington is clear-eyed and united.

In their message to Mr. Trump, the group said, “We urge your Administration to adopt and pursue an Iran policy that recognizes the interests and inalienable rights of the Iranian people, and not just the clerical regime ruling over them.

“President Obama expressed the hope that nuclear negotiations would induce Iran’s leaders to act with greater consideration of American interests. It is now clear that Iran’s leaders have shown no interest in reciprocating. … Through their extremely high rate of executions at home, and destructive sectarian warfare in support of the Assad regime in Syria and proxy Shiite militias in Iraq, Iran’s rulers have directly targeted U.S. strategic interests, policies and principles, and those of our allies and friends in the Middle East.”

“To restore American influence and credibility in the world, the United States needs a revised policy,” the former top officials and experts added. We strongly agree and echo this call.

The Iranian regime must be held to account for committing egregious human rights abuses and crimes against humanity, including the horrific massacre of over 30,000 political prisoners, many of them supporters of the MEK, in 1988.

Iranian-Americans are optimistic that the new administration will open a historic chapter in its policies toward the world’s largest banker and supporter of international terrorism: Tehran. As the 23 former officials told Mr. Trump, there is an alternative to the ayatollahs: the true representatives of the tens of millions of Iranian citizens yearning for a free, democratic and non-nuclear Iran.

Shirin Nariman, a resident of Vienna, is the executive director of the Iranian American Community of Virginia, a member of the Organization of Iranian American Communities.

 

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The coming storm in Iran?

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By Mitchell B. Reiss   |   March 28, 2018

In Iran today, men and women, young and old, rich and poor, are courageously taking to the streets in ever-greater numbers and frequency to protest a clerical regime that continues to deny them the basic human rights that are guaranteed to them. Those protests have spread across the country. Last week, the minister of interior admitted that protests were taking place in more than 100 cities.

Protests against the regime in Tehran are not new, but the latest protests — which first erupted last December — seem different. Why? Because they involve all sectors of Iranian society, especially the farmers and the poor, those elements of society that the regime has always counted on as its bedrock of support. In American political jargon, the “base” is in revolt, protesting the rising cost of food, the lack of clean drinking water and little economic opportunity, as well as a lack of freedom and human dignity.

The protests will continue because the regime is both unwilling and unable to address these legitimate grievances; it would mean putting an end to its corruption and economic mismanagement. Tehran has squandered billions of dollars on foreign adventures that could be used to help the Iranian people, sending its young men off to fight and die overseas for causes that the Iranian people do not support. And the protests will continue because the youth of Iran are leading them. Media reports tell us that 85 percent of all those protesters arrested by the regime are under the age of 35. The young people are not going to go away; they are the future of Iran.

These events are connected to us in the United States not only because we wish the Iranian people to one day enjoy the benefits of democracy that we enjoy every day. They’re also connected to us because it’s our responsibility as Americans to help the Iranian people who want a better future for their country.

What can we do? Well, we have a president in the White House who is willing to try many policies that his predecessors had been unwilling to pursue. I doubt that he will be intimidated by the ayatollahs.

As a matter of policy, we need to continue to draw the world’s attention to the regime’s brutality and its illegal crackdown on its citizens. We need to add senior Iranian officials to the list of international human rights violators so we can impose sanctions on them. We need to help create secure internet and social media channels so the Iranian people can communicate with one another without the regime’s interference.

We also need to counter the spread of the Iranian regime’s influence in the region, working closely with our friends and allies to defeat and deter Iranian forces and their proxies in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. And we need to send a strong signal to the Iranian people that we support their democratic aspirations and, like them, want a representative government in Iran that respects the rule of law and honors its own people.

There is bipartisan support in Congress for this effort. There is a leader in exile, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, who has developed and endorsed a declaration of human rights, a 10-point plan that mirrors our own Bill of Rights. And most importantly, there are the hundreds of thousands of Iranian people who are bravely demanding a better life.

Iran’s brutal behavior inside the country and aggressive actions across the region erode our security and demean our values. The good news is that forces of progress toward a secular, democratic, non-nuclear republic Iran are more organized, more mobilized, and more energized than they were a year ago. The world is watching. And it is siding with the Iranian people.

Mitchell B. Reiss was the director of policy planning at the State Department from 2003-2005. He may be contacted at mitchellreiss@yahoo.com.

http://www.richmond.com/opinion/their-opinion/guest-columnists/mitchell-b-reiss-column-the-coming-storm-in-iran/article_d987d981-8112-559e-beb6-1a465bf964df.html

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