Addressing the conference, Lee Hamilton, Member of Congress (1965-1999), served as Chair of Select Committee on Intelligence, Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran, and Committee on Foreign Affairs, described the Iranian regime as one that has caused more anguish over a long period of time than any country. He rejected blacklisting of the PMOI by the US Department of State and stressed that the Iraqi government must protect Camp Ashraf residents. Excerpts from transcription of his remarks follow:
I’m delighted to be here for three reasons.
First of all, to be with this very distinguished panel. I’d like to get up and say nice things about every member of this panel. I think I’ve worked with all of them and I know I’ve heard testimony from all of them.
I tell the people back in Indiana that it’s very hard to make this government work. We make a lot of criticisms of our leaders but a country as big and as diverse as we are, it’s hard to make it work.
What impresses me about the people here at the panel this morning is that they are people who have tried to make this country work. They are dedicated public servants and a high honor for me to be with them.
Secondly, I’m honored to be here because of you. I admire what you have stood for in terms of seeking for the Iranian people freedom. I know many of you have deep personal attachments to people today in Iran, that you feel the issues that we discuss here rather easily, you feel them very, very deeply.
I want you to know how much I admire and appreciate you. I am impressed and have been impressed throughout my time with the importance of unofficial people in foreign policy. People in Washington come and go in high office. The unofficial people maintain the ties and the contacts and the bilateral relationships and you serve a far more important purpose I believe than you probably realize in the work that you have done.
Now, the third reason that I’m glad to be here is that you folks are just about the most hospitable I’ve seen since I left Indiana. I’m not nearly as knowledgeable about Iran.
What I’m going to do is just try to give you some impressions about U.S.-Iranian relationships that are really quite obvious to all of us and then I’m going to attempt something that I probably shouldn’t. I’m going to try to spell out for you very quickly what I think the United States ought to be doing.
My impressions are, first, the United States has had extraordinary difficulty over a period of decades of dealing with this country of Iran.
I don’t know of any country that has caused us more heartburn, more anguish over a longer period of time than Iran. I don’t know that I know the reasons for it, but I am impressed by you. It has been a very, very difficult country for the United States to understand and to deal with.
There are reasons for it. Iran is a country of great political complexity and volatility. It has a very complex political system. It has I think someone told me over 200 separate political parties.
It has, of course, a great deal of internal turmoil that you folks know a lot more about than I do. It has created enormous tensions in the international community over a period of time. Of course, all the world today is very much focused on what it’s planning to do with regard to nuclear materials.
It has been a very complex challenge for American foreign policymakers over a period of a long time. Iran is a powerful country. It’s a big actor. It’s rich in all kinds of resources, especially energy resources. We continue in this country to focus, as much of the world does, on what it intends to do with regard to nuclear power.
I’ve read, as you have read in recent days, the intelligence reports of the United States government, maybe others here on this platform that can speak to that better than I, but I’m impressed when they say that Iran is determined to build a nuclear program and that they have begun taking steps towards designing nuclear warheads.
That has enormous significance for us and for the world and, of course, for that region. I understand that much of the information that we have in this country with respect to the Iranian nuclear program comes from you and from those that you know well.
So we have trouble reading Iran. What are they up to? What really drives that country today? What in the world are they trying to do with respect to building nuclear weapons? What are their intentions?
We all know the complexity of this problem, the difficulty of it, the anguish that it’s caused you personally, the anguish it has caused American policymakers. What do we do about it?
May I make a few suggestions that I think most of my colleagues will say in one way or the other, nothing particularly original in what I have to say?
We must insist, of course, that the Iraqi government live up to its commitment to protect those who live in Ashraf. I’ve talked with several of you in recent days about that situation. You have educated me a good bit about what has gone on there but the safety and the security of those people must be assured and the United States must insist upon it.
Secondly, as I think all of us would agree, we have to support and we have to tighten the sanctions. We have had sanctions on Iran since 1979 and the world community a long time as well. Loopholes have to be closed. The sanctions have to be tightened.
From my point of view I think it’s very important that we particularly tighten those sanctions with regard to financial flows and financial institutions. We have to double, triple, strengthen our efforts to tighten the sanctions.
These sanctions coupled with covert actions, I think the world agrees, the United States agrees, have had an impact in delaying the nuclear program in Iran and that’s a very positive thing because it gives us more time to try to solve this problem.
With regard to the covert actions, I am not knowledgeable with respect to exactly what is being done today but it is my belief as much of our press is reporting that those covert actions have been very important with regard to reducing the nuclear potential causing barriers, obstacles, problems for them. The next thing we have to do is support the opposition in Iran.
I have been terribly moved as you have been as I have seen the protest movements spreading out across the Middle East and I’m very much aware of the fact that in Iran in the next two or three days it could be a very critical time for the future of that country.
The United States must see this as an opportunity to stand up for our core values in this country and we must support those people in Iran who seek freedom and democracy and respect for human rights.
I believe the best chance for the United States to move forward in its relationship with Iran is to support the opposition in Iran and I mean support in very specific ways. I don’t know that I know all of their ways. Cash is one thing that could be helpful. Removing barriers to the opposition acquiring the latest technology in, in getting the word out throughout the country might be another and we should never let up on our support for human rights.
I believe that the United States understands that the ingredients in Iran today are there for the support of change. They have a frustrated, young, well educated, not employed, technically savvy, restless group of people in that country. Change will come to Iran. It is only a matter of time.
I asked myself what does it matter how the United States stands in all of us? My guess would be that our position is not decisive, that the future of Iran is to be decided by the Iranian people and that’s the way it ought to be, not by me, not by this distinguished panel, but by the Iranian people.
Let me talk about this issue of delisting the MeK (People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran – PMOI).
I have to say to you that I’m one of those people that Bill referred to in his remarks that has not paid enough attention to this issue.
I think I can give you a lot of reasons why I have not but you wouldn’t accept any of them I’m sure so I’ll just have to tell you that from where I stand now I’m really puzzled.
I do not understand why the United States has kept the MeK on the terrorist list for all of these years. I have had access to classified information. I know some things may have happened in the past but I just don’t understand why.
Now, this is not nuclear physics. This is a factual question with regard to the conduct of the MeK and why the United States has not resolved it and spoken out on it I simply do not understand but I am not aware of any facts that require the MeK to be on the terrorist list.
As I conclude here I want to just say a word about this ten point plan. As I understand it, this is the third option. I’ve read through that. I like it. I think it’s very well done.
Support for the ballot box, support for a pluralist system, separation of the church and state, complete gender equality, a modern legal system, support for the universal declaration of human rights, support for private property, support for peaceful coexistence, supports for a free Iran.