Iran’s regime has a well-deserved reputation as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, against its own people at home and throughout the region, Ambassador Mitchell B. Reiss, a former U.S. State Department Director of Policy Planning said on Thursday.
“The sixty-day countdown clock is winding down as Congress prepares to vote on the nuclear deal with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Serious questions remain about compliance, verification, and the ability of the United States and the international community to re-impose sanctions should Iran be caught cheating,” Amb. Reiss wrote in TheHill.com.
“This task would be daunting enough if the only challenge was eliciting transparency from a regime that is a master of deception. But the Iranian regime also has a well-deserved reputation as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, against its own people at home and throughout the region.”
“President Obama’s goal for this deal is to constrain Iran’s nuclear weapons activities for the next decade in the hope that loosening sanctions will expose the Iranian people to the outside world and transform the regime into a more liberal, representative government that respects human rights and lives in peace with its neighbors. In short, the goal is an Iran that is willing to negotiate adjustments to the regional order, not subvert or overturn it by force.”
“Serious people may disagree over whether this deal is likely to achieve this goal or if it is wishful thinking that relies more on hope than experience.”
“But what is undeniable is that the deal will free up billions in frozen assets that Iran can readily use for repressing domestic critics and sponsoring foreign terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah. The White House has not outlined any strategy for how it might ‘shape the battlefield,’ either inside Iran or in the region, to move, coerce or incentivize Iran to liberalize its government and fulfill Obama’s vision.”
Amb. Reiss urged the Obama administration to develop an Internet strategy that can capitalize on social media to appeal to the 60 percent of the Iranian population that is under the age of 30?
“Where is the support for dissidents? Where are the plans to confront Iranian meddling in Yemen, Iraq and Syria? Where are the policies that will undermine Iran’s proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah? In short, where is a strategy that will promote regime change?”
“With no strategy to address the growing instability fomented by Iran across the Middle East, we are putting our national security interests, as well as our friends and allies, at risk.”
Amb. Reiss urged President Barack Obama to “develop policies, programs and institutions that will support and promote the millions of Iranians who want a better future for their country.”
