National Iranian Congress December 5, 2016 The Only Likelihood Of A Nuclear Free Iran Is A Free, Democratic Iran How President Trump can secure American interests in the Middle East The National Iranian Congress (NIC) wishes to extend its congratulations to President-Elect Donald J. Trump on his victory in the United States November 8, 2016 presidential election. This is an unprecedented achievement in American politics and we anticipate it will usher in an era of strong, principled American leadership. We believe the results of not only the 2016 presidential election but also the congressional elections have positioned the United States government to replace the disastrous foreign policy of the previous administration with a robust foreign policy agenda for the 21st century – one that returns America to its position of world leadership in achieving peace and prosperity through undeniable diplomatic, economic and military preeminence. In this regard, it is our fervent hope that one of the highest foreign policy priorities in the Trump administration will be to put in place an Iran policy with bipartisan congressional political support that recognizes the rights of the Iranian people to govern themselves and form a government of their choosing through free and fair elections. We are committed to forging a close working relationship with the new administration and congress to implement a wholly new Iran policy which effectively advances U.S. security interests in the Middle East and, at the same time, supports the Iranian democratic movement in its effort to end the brutal, oppressive religious tyranny of the Islamic regime of Iran, without resorting to the use of U.S.

military force or pursuing misguided nation-building programs. In his relentless quest for a nuclear deal with the Islamic regime of Iran, President Obama simply chose to ignore the fact that Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. He abandoned the Iranian freedom movement in 2009 when the citizens of Iran took to the streets to protest the rigged presidential election and to remove the Khamenei regime peacefully. The notion that the only alternative to seeking a nuclear deal with the corrupt Khamenei regime is war is an illusion created by the Obama administration. Obama communicated directly to Tehran through secret back-channels his willingness to support Khamenei. The truth is that the oppressed majority of the Iranian people did not then, and do not today, support the Khamenei regime’s nuclear program and desperately want to be rid of the regime itself. On July 14, 2015, President Obama entered into an extraordinary nuclear arrangement with Iran, Britain, France, Germany, the European Union, Russia and China, the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action NIC NATIONAL IRANIAN CONGRESS 1 (JCPOA). President Obama and his colleagues succeeded in keeping the American and European publics and their respective elected representatives in the dark about the agreed terms and conditions to avoid any chance of interference in getting a nuclear deal with the Iranian regime. We urge the Trump administration not to legitimize President Obama’s egregious abuse of the US president’s executive authority in concluding and implementing the nuclear deal or otherwise and bypassing the constitutional authority of the U.S. Congress by attempting to renegotiate its provisions. Specifically, the National Iranian Congress calls on President Trump to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and to communicate his Iran policies and plans directly to the Iranian people as he has done so effectively with the citizens of the United States. The National Iranian Congress seeks from the Trump administration acknowledgement of a fundamental truth the Obama administration rejected: the only likelihood of a nuclear-weapons free Iran is a free, democratic Iran. We look forward to working with a United States government that henceforth remains true to its longstanding commitment of helping those seeking freedom from oppression. We seek political support from the United States in the Iranian people’s quest to establish a constitutional republic governed by the will of its citizens and elected representatives through free and fair popular elections.

This approach necessitates no deployment of U.S. military forces, military attacks by third parties, or nation-building programs. The Iranian freedom movement’s leadership neither seeks nor desires anything more than the Trump administration’s moral support of its effort to bring about a transition to a free and democratic Republic of Iran. As part of putting in place a new Iran policy which supports a transition to a free and democratic Iran, we urge the Trump administration to take the following steps: Reinstitute rigorous comprehensive US sanctions against the Khamenei Regime: The revenue flowing to the Iranian regime from releasing assets and the lifting of sanctions saved the Islamic Republic’s economy from imminent collapse and effectively subsidized militant groups in Iraq, the Assad regime in Syria, the terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen, all of which are Shiite militias. In effect, the Obama administration has been one of the most effective enablers of Iran’s exploitation of the Sunni-Shiite schism in the Middle East. Iran’s egregious behavior has only intensified as the regime’s revenues increased under the nuclear deal. We urge the Trump administration to reverse the Obama policy of subsidizing the activities of the Khamenei regime – the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. We believe that stringent Iran oil and central bank sanctions legislation should again be passed by Congress and signed by President Trump as soon as possible. The National Iranian Congress pursued a relentless and successful campaign from 2006 to 2012 urging the U.S. Congress to implement these sanctions in the first place. Sanctions would be lifted only when free and fair democratic elections are held in Tehran.

Cooperate with the NIC in its effort to mobilize Iranian popular opinion and will against the corrupt Islamic regime of Iran through a concerted, intellectually honest public information campaign: An effective first step could be the immediate reform Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) headed by the Secretary of State, specially Voice of America Persian service (VOA-PNN) and Radio Farda. As the relevant U.S. congressional committees are aware, because of poor State Department oversight, both broadcasts have been dominated by pro-regime personnel for the past decade. The NIC urges, and will assist in any way appropriate, the Trump administration to work closely with the Senate Homeland Security Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee to implement a plan they developed to change the VOA management, personnel and programming of its Farsi-language international broadcasts into Iran, such as VOA Persian News Network and Radio Farda. A Trump administration Secretary of State would likely find the plan useful in aligning the US-found media campaigns with U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives in the Middle East generally and Iran specifically. The National Iranian Congress observes that in spite of, or perhaps because of, the Iran nuclear deal, the Islamic regime’s nuclear weapons program continues apace. Its expanding ballistic missile program poses evergreater threats to the region, U.S. allies and U.S. military forces. At the same time, the regime in Tehran is stepping up its war rhetoric against Israel. These troubling developments are in plain view. Almost unnoticed in Washington, however, Iran’s internal situation continues to deteriorate to the detriment of the Islamic Republic even with the relaxation of sanctions and the infusion of capital by the Obama administration. The $1.7 billion recently delivered to the Khamenei regime has vanished with no trace in Tehran. Corruption has consumed the decision-making elites, the ideological power structures, and the security elements that keep them in power. The youthful population is losing its fear of the regime and becoming increasingly vocal and active for dramatic change. Iran is a youthful country, with 70 percent of the population under age 35 with no memory of life before the 1979 Islamic revolution. Four decades of Islamic fundamentalist propaganda against the U.S.

and Israel paradoxically have had the opposite of the regime’s intended effects – it has produced a large young population that is not hostile to Washington and Jerusalem, but friendly; not fanatically attached to fundamentalist interpretations of Islam, but alienated from them and often from Islam itself. The National Iranian Congress cannot overemphasize that the effects of the nuclear deal have only encouraged more abuse from an already brutal regime. Oppression is at its harshest, yet at the same time, events can be set in motion that will overwhelm the regime’s grip on the Iranian people. Now is the time for the U.S. to end its perverse policy of supporting the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.