By Shahriar Kia
The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States has wreaked havoc among the regime in Iran. Iran’s lobbying groups in Washington are going the distance to influence Trump’s foreign policy vis-à-vis the mullahs in Tehran.
This is an effort to have the appeasement policy of current U.S. president Barack Obama continue under a new administration. This campaign is bent on convincing Trump and his cabinet that an Iran regime-change policy will strengthen the “hardliners” and weaken the “moderates.”
“If Trump adopts a hostile policy towards Iran or scraps the deal, hard-liners and particularly the IRGC will benefit from it,” Reuters posted,citing a former Iranian “reformist” official.
This is the core argument put forward by the Tehran lobby to deceive Washington and fashion U.S. foreign policy based on rapprochement with Iran. Eight years of engagement by the Obama administration not only rendered no change in Iran and its meddling policies, in fact, the mullahs were encouraged to further continue inflaming the region and increase domestic crackdown.
Iran has continuously engulfed the entire region in blaze through establishing Shiite militias in Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon. Repressing the Iranian people actually increased more than ever before under the so-called “reformists.” Iran executed more than 966 people in 2015 alone, as emphasized by a United Nations report.
Nearly 38 years after the February 1979 revolution in Iran, the entire mullahs’ regime establishment is based on two pillars of exporting terrorism and war outside of its borders; and second, the crackdown against dissidents inside the country. “Hardliners” and “reformists” alike have continuously agreed on these two main ideas of this regime.
Eight years of war with Iraq, meddling in the internal affairs of regional countries and establishing Shiite militias in these countries are all various dimensions of this policy. Inside Iran this regime has focused on the ruthless crackdown on opposition members, parallel to daily and public executions, to impose a climate of fear throughout society.
Iran neither is willing nor capable of shifting from such a perspective, knowing even the slightest change can mean the destruction of the main pillar discussed above, and eventually lead to the complete downfall of the entire regime establishment.
This is exactly why the mullahs’ lobby resorts to any and all means to prevent the West from trekking anywhere close to such foundations. These lobbies continue to portray an image of Iran to the international community as if so-called “moderates” opposing such a policy do actually exist inside the regime. This viewpoint calls on the West to back these “moderates” and continue pursuing the appeasement policy to encourage Tehran to change its global perspective.
From day one of this regime’s existence back in 1979, it has been proven time and again that a policy of engagement with Iran will not render any change. In fact, this will only encourage and embolden the mullahs.
Most recently, Obama is continuing its incentives to the mullahs by attempting tofortify the nuclear agreement and even granting permission for Airbus to deliver more planes to Iran.
By blowing the whistle on Iran’s nuclear program the Iranian opposition (PMOI/MEK) which enjoys bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress, has paid the price and provided immense support for all nations, especially in the Middle East. If not for such revelations, Iran would most definitely have obtained, or at least be on the verge of obtaining nuclear weapons.
A firm policy against Iran, and standing with Iranian people and their organized Resistance for a regime change in Iran, will bring stability and security in the region and the whole world. Eight years of appeasement and concessions to Iran by Obama resulted in encouraging the mullahs to further pursue their Middle East meddling and domestic crackdown.
Originally posted in the American Thinker
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