New sanctions on Iran are a
step towards taking power away from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, but there
is much more the US and its allies can do.
The US House of Representatives on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to
rally major new sanctions on
Iran, parallel to measures on North Korea and Russia. To impose additional
sanctions on Iran’s defense sector, The House voted 419-3, moving the bill
forward to be signed by President Trump. Coming after three weeks of
negotiations, this bill “tightens the screws on our most dangerous adversaries,”
explained House Speaker Paul Ryan.
The bill sanctions anyone associated with Iran’s IslamicRevolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) or anyone whom the US determines is complicit
in Iranian human rights violations. Anyone sanctioned under the act may later
have sanctions removed after a five-year review.
Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi welcome the US House of
Reps’ new sanctions and terrorist designation of IRGC as
essential to rectifying the policy of appeasement and described the
act as a “step in line with the Iranian people’s desires and peace in the
region,” especially as it turns up the heat on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
The new
act is a step in line with the Iranian people’s desires and peace in the
region. It must be supplemented with other steps#Iran pic.twitter.com/CHqQXMBowF
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) July 26, 2017
The new
administration coming to Washington has promised many things, not least of
which includes a reexamination of US policies towards Iran. Though the Obama
administration did all it could to sell the nuclear deal as a victory, at best
it has deferred the ultimate questions about how to deal with the regime in
Iran, and at worst it has emboldened their belligerence in the region.
A successful policy
vis-a-vis the regime in Tehran has seemingly eluded Republicans and Democrats
for the last 16 years. It may be time to try something new.
Middle Eastern states when confronted with intense instability can
result in the spread of insecurity across the globe. This includes the threat
of terrorism in Europe and the US, and the increase of sectarian conflicts abroad.
Yet there are no easy solutions to these issues. The prospects of
being dragged into another war are not appealing to anyone, yet neither can we
afford to sit back and watch radical terror spread throughout the Middle East.
Unfortunately, the appeasement policy by the West for the past two
decades has exacerbated this problem, directly or indirectly supporting or
engaging Islamic fundamentalists at the expense of their main secular and
progressive opposition. The cold war policies of arming jihadists and
undermining democratic groups is a direct example of this. It is time to employ
a reversal of this policy.
A common denominator underlying the rise of ISIS, and the spread of instability and
fundamentalism, is none other than the regime in Tehran. No one can deny this.
Yet at every turn, we are told that the only solution is one which engages the
mullahs and strengthens their grip on power. The time for such thinking is at
an end.
The regime has been reluctant to make good on promises of change
and thus far has continued its brutal repression of dissidents while
maintaining an aggressive policy in the region.
The question of how to
guarantee a long term shift in the behavior of the Iranian regime remains
unanswered by Iranian regime apologists.
The only long term policy which can guarantee a fundamental change of behavior in
Iran, and sets an example for hope and change abroad, is one which recognizes
the legitimate rights of the Iranian people to bring about democratic change
and topple the theocratic fascist state in Iran.
It is the time that the United States firmly aligned itself with
the Iranian opposition which embraces democratic change, freedom and liberty,
and secular governance. The Iranian people and their organized resistance
should be the primary negotiation partners and allies, not the ruling mullahs.
The principal opposition to the Iranian theocracy, the National
Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and its main pillar, People’s MojahedinOrganization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) is one such organization.
“In history, the name of your president elect, Maryam Rajavi, will
go down in the same tradition of fighters for freedom as Washington, Lafayette,
and Garibaldi,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in a speech at the
annual NCRI convention held this year on July 1st in Paris.
Rajavi
advocates a new future of Iran. This includes a ten-point plan for a democratic secular republic in Iran, free of
nuclear weapons, capital punishment, and tolerant to all religions,
ethnicities, and ideas.
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