Washington Times, letters – The editorial, "Iran and the Clintonistas" (Wednesday), was spot-on in writing about the Iran policy debacle presided over by the Clinton administration when Mohammad Khatami became president in 1997. Unfortunately, this fiasco was not limited to "making conciliatory statements" and "relaxing sanctions on Iran," including "an end of the ban on imports of products such as caviar and rugs."
The most disastrous aspect of that policy was to blacklist the only effective and organized internal opposition to the tyrants in Iran, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK). Senior Clinton administration officials acknowledged that the move was "a goodwill gesture" to Tehran. Ironically, conciliation led not to moderation, but to the ascension of the most extremist faction of the Iranian theocracy, which is also hell-bent on derailing the democratic process in Iraq.
The world is now faced with the prospect of the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism arming itself with the world’s most dangerous weapon. How does one thwart this threat? The solution, as the Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi articulated during an address at the Council of Europe last April, lies neither in appeasement nor in a foreign war. It is democratic change by the Iranian people and their organized resistance.
Labeling the main component of the resistance, the PMOI, as "terrorist," however, has hamstrung its potentials and seriously impeded democratic change in Iran. A majority in Congress and thousands of lawmakers in Europe have demanded the removal of the "terror" tag.
The PMOI played a crucial role in revealing Tehran’s clandestine nuclear weapons program and has acted as a major bulwark against the mullahs’ efforts to export their firebrand ideology to Iraq, which explains why the despots in Iran have recently attempted to curtail the right of thousands of PMOI members to free speech in Iraq.
As an anti-fundamentalist Muslim movement, the PMOI is an ally in the fight for democracy in Iran as the world is trying to grapple with the specter of a nuclear-armed theocracy threatening not just the Middle East, but Europe and America as well.
ALI SAFAVI
National Council of Resistance of Iran
