NCRI, October 20 – United States policy on Iran was addressed by experts on foreign affairs in a meeting organized by the U.S. Congress Sub-committee on Middle East and Central Asia.
The committee chaired by Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, heard Ilan Berman, vice president for policy at the Washington-based American Foreign Policy Council and the author of “Tehran Rising, Iran’s Challenge to the United States,” who explained the Iranian regime’s growing nuclear and terrorist threats to world peace.
The mullahs’ deep-rooted relations with terrorist groups around the world, particularly in the Middle East, were highlighted by Berman as issues that needed to be confronted as a major threat to world security.
He unveiled the clerical regime’s intentions in Iraq, where huge sums of money are spent to turn the country into another Islamic Republic under its domination. To this end the regime plans to use its nuclear capabilities, he said.
Responding to a question by a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Berman described Iran as a state challenging the United States in the Middle East and declared that one way of dealing with the ruling regime in that country would be to remove the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, the main opposition movement, from the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations, Voice of America said in a report on the hearing. This would give the PMOI freedom of activities, Berman added.
The Washington Times reported on October 20, “A congressional forum today will hold a briefing on the threats posed by Iran’s support for terrorism and its efforts to develop a nuclear weapon”."
“Iran’s ongoing efforts to secure nuclear-weapons capability present a unique and troublesome challenge to the civilized world," said a group of three Democrats and three Republicans who are organizing the forum.
“The mullahs in Iran have leveraged the resources of the Iranian people toward questionable goals, while brutally suppressing the Iranian people and supporting international terrorism.”
“The briefing will feature Iran analysts, women’s rights activists and government officials,” they said.
The forum is sponsored by Republican Reps. John Boozman of Arkansas, Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida and Tom Tancredo of Colorado; and Democratic Reps. William Lacy Clay of Missouri, Bob Filner of California and Edolphus Towns of New York.
