Iran: Moving Forward With the Correct Western Policy

NCRI - The Iranian regime has enjoyed appeasement from the West for years despite its outright belligerence across the region. Former President Obama was so keen to keep the Iran nuclear deal in place that he turned a blind eye to many nefarious acts that the regime was responsible for. He also ignored blatant issues that should have been addressed, or at least acknowledged, like the poor human rights record in the country.

When President Trump took office, he made it clear that he would not be passive like his predecessor. He has identified Iran as a major problem in the Middle East and has vowed to tackle the issue.

Iran’s bellicosity in the region has been going on for decades. During the eighties, it was behind an attack on the US Embassy and barracks in Beirut. During the nineties it was behind the attack on the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. And these are just a few incidents.

When Obama pulled all US troops out of Iraq, he basically handed the country over to Iran. He pulled them out too soon and gave Iran the opportunity to further its export of the revolution with the help of several extremist proxy groups.

Because of the inaction of the US, and the rest of the West, Iran has been able to have free reign over the entire Middle East and has terrorised Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Afghanistan.

It has been reported recently that Iran has been supplying weapons to the Yemeni Houthis. It has also been providing the group with drugs which it sells to create revenue to keep the soldiers on the ground. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is present in Syria where it helps the Houthis smuggle weapons.

They are now using waters in the Gulf near Kuwait to get past an arms shipment embargo. It allows Iranian ships to move equipment to smaller vessels in areas where there are less inspections. This will often be in the waters around Kuwait.

Iran has been provoking US vessels in the area and many believe that these are attempts to see how President Trump will react. Last month, an Iranian vessel approached a US Navy ship which eventually had to fire warning shots.

The Trump administration is showing that it is committed to curbing the Iranian threat. He is taking steps that aim to limit Iran’s actions. This is contrary to that of Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign policy chief who is travelling to Iran for the inauguration of President Hassan Rouhani. Trump is at least showing Iran that its actions will have consequences. Mogherini is content to continue with the blind eye policy.

A new initiative has just been signed into law by Trump that will impose tight restrictions on Iran and its IRGC is being treated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group. Foreign companies will have to seriously consider the consequences of carrying out business transactions with Tehran.

Furthermore, many are calling for trade relations with Iran to be halted until it stops violating the human rights of its own people. They also call for Iranian forces to be removed from Iraq and Syria and for the ballistic missile program to be stopped.

A New Iran Policy

Iranian Resistance Gathering in Paris [file photo

The Town Hall, June 30, 2017 - Five-plus months into the Trump administration, the outlines of a new foreign policy remain unclear. One of Donald Trump's frequent applause lines when he was a candidate was his promise to 'rip up' the Iranian nuclear agreement, which Trump and other critics claimed was one-sided because it lifted crippling economic sanctions yet allowed too much room for Iran to pursue development of nuclear weapons. In April, the Trump administration certified that Iran was narrowly living up to the agreement to halt the development of nuclear weapons, but the administration nonetheless slapped new sanctions on Iran for its ballistic missile program and state-sponsored support for terrorism. This new approach might not be so aggressive as hard-line opponents of the Iranian nuclear deal hoped for, but it does deliver a needed shot across the bow to an Iranian regime that continues to threaten regional peace and suppress its people.
But what happens next? Iran continues to play an important and destructive role in Syria, backing the Assad regime in its murderous campaign against its own people. This week, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley warned in congressional testimony that Syria's apparent preparation for another chemical attack could have grave consequences. 'The goal is, at this point, not just to send Assad a message but to send Russia and Iran a message,' Haley said: 'If this happens again, we are putting you on notice.' She continued, 'My hope is that the president's warning will certainly get Russia and Iran to take a second look, and I hope that it will caution Assad.' But if the U.S. response were to be another limited attack on a Syrian airfield, that message would most likely be ignored.

If the U.S. wants to stop Iran from interfering in Syria and elsewhere in the region and put an end to its nuclear program -- not just a temporary halt -- the most effective means would be to recognize the democratic opposition to Iran's theocratic regime flourishing both inside Iran and among the Iranian diaspora around the world. On July 1, tens of thousands of Iranians will gather in Paris to promote 'Free Iran.' As I have been for the past six years, I will be on hand to emcee the event, which gathers dignitaries from several European counties, the Middle East, Africa and the United States. This year, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, former Sen. Joe Lieberman and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, as well as retired U.S. military officials, will be among the Americans addressing the conference, which is sponsored by the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran and the National Council of Resistance of Iran, whose leader is Maryam Rajavi .
What makes this year's gathering different from those of previous years is recent support for Rajavi's group on visible display within Iran. During the Iranian elections in May, posters of Rajavi appeared on overpasses and on walls in Tehran, Tabriz and other major cities, along with PMOI pleas to vote against the two major candidates -- Ebrahim Raisi, the mullahs' favorite, and the incumbent, Hassan Rouhani . Although media often describe Rouhani as a moderate, he is anything but; his government has actually increased the number of executions and cracked down hard on dissent within the country. But elections in Iran are a sham; all candidates must be approved by the Guardian Council to appear on the ballot, and almost all are rejected. Only with free and fair elections will the Iranian people finally have a chance to determine their future. 
In the past year, more than 7,000 demonstrations against the regime have taken place, a number not seen since the Green Movement in 2009. That year, the new Obama administration turned a deaf ear toward Iranians hankering for democracy. If the Trump administration is serious about reversing the Obama administration's Iran policy, it could begin by embracing those Iranian dissidents who offer a different future for their fellow countrymen.

What Is the Right Policy Towards Iran and the MEK?

It is sometimes now that many US officials have been talking about Iran and the actions that US must take towards Iran. In a hearing in the congress, the Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, in response to a question about the US policy towards Iran said: “Well our Iranian policy is under development. It’s not yet been delivered to the president, but I would tell you that we certainly recognize Iran’s continued destabilizing presence in the region, their payment of foreign fighters, their export of militia forces in Syria, in Iraq, in Yemen, their support for Hezbollah. And we are taking action to respond to Iran’s hegemony. Additional sanctions actions have been put in place against individuals and others.”

“We continually review the merits both from the standpoint of diplomatic but also international consequences of designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in its entirety as a terrorist organization,” he added. “As you know, we have designated the Quds [Force]. Our policy towards Iran is to push back on this hegemony, contain their ability to develop obviously nuclear weapons, and to work toward support of those elements inside of Iran that would lead to a peaceful transition of that government. Those elements are there, certainly as we know.”

The fact is that for years Iranian people have been seeking for a regime change, but the brutal internal suppression, and international and especially US policy of appeasement towards Iran have been the main obstacles to reach this goal.Contrary to many other countries, in Iran a democratic and organized opposition exists. The Mujahedin-e-Khalq or the MEK has been struggling with this regime for over thirty eight years. Since June 20, 1981 Iranian regime has executed over 120000, mostly members and supporters of the MEK. Only in summer of 1988 over 30000 political prisoners, majority of them from the MEK, were massacred. During this massacre the death committee was going to the prisons and asking the prisoners if they are still supporting the MEK, and if the answer was yes, they would immediately be hanged.

In addition to the massacre of MEK supports, Iranian regime created an atmosphere of fear and terror in the society. The terror atmosphere was such that whoever had any connection of any kind with the MEK they would be arrested and tortured. Even using the name of MEK was prohibited. Any call or communication with MEK members in camps Ashraf and Liberty in Iraq by their family members was considered a crime and many MEK family members were arrested and tortured just because they called to talk to their loved ones.

Despite all the carnage, pressures and suppression, the MEK continued its struggle against the regime. After transfer of MEK members from Iraq to Albania, they focused their activities inside Iran. During the sham Presidential elections, supporters of the MEK posted pictures and posters of Maryam Rajavi, the President elect of NCRI, in the public places in many Iranian cities. The extent of these activities was such that the regime was terrified and compelled to react and cover the activities in their media.

In the past eight months, the MEK supports in Iran have staged a campaign regarding the 1988 massacre. In this campaign many atrocities of the regime was revealed. The campaign has been so wide spread and extensive that last week Khamenei, the supreme leader of the regime was forced to react against the MEK, defending the massacre of MEK members and supporters in the prisons.

The widespread activities of the MEK supporters inside Iran and formation of American-Arab coalition in the region, has become the main concern of the regime. Due to this concern, Iran lobbies have started a widespread campaign against the MEK to demonize the MEK. In this campaign they deceitfully do not directly support the regime, but instead by demonizing the MEK, they are trying to say that this regime does not have any alternative so for any possible change, the solution is within the regime and the West must try to find “moderates” inside the regime. The deceptive tactic is to save the same regime with the same values, and the right policy is to ignore all these propaganda of demonizing the MEK by the Iranian regime and its lobbies. The basis for any right policy towards Iran is to officially recognize the MEK as the main opposition to this regime.