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HomeNEWSRESISTANCEFirst Iranian American Convention in 12 Years Happening in D.C. This Weekend

First Iranian American Convention in 12 Years Happening in D.C. This Weekend

By Patrick Goodenough 

 

 (CNSNews.com) May 4, 2018 – Just days before President Trump is expected to announce whether or not he will withdraw the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal, Iranian Americans will hold their first national convention since 2006, meeting in Washington on Saturday at a time when many feel buoyed by a more supportive president in the White House.

High on the agenda at the Iran Freedom Convention for Democracy and Human Rights will be the ongoing anti-regime protests in Iran.

“Delegates representing Iranian American communities from 40 states across America will voice support for the continuing protests and the uprising that erupted in 142 cities across the nation, and for a free, democratic, secular, and non-nuclear republic in Iran,” the Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC) said in a statement.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson will deliver keynote speeches, it said.

The OIAC describes itself as a non-partisan non-profit that “supports the Iranian people’s struggle for democratic change.”

A resolution expected to be adopted at the convention will voice support a “ten-point plan” for the future of Iran, compiled by the leader of the exiled Iranian opposition group National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Maryam Rajavi.

Asked about the decision to organize the event after such a long hiatus, OIAC political director Majid Sadeghpour said it was being “held at a very crucial juncture as anti-government protests continue in cities across Iran and talk about an appropriate policy toward Iran is a hot topic in Washington.”

 “The convention will add the much-needed but often missing voice of Iranian-American communities to this debate just as unending protests in Iran continue to bog down the regime,” he said.

Sadeghpour said the event’s timing is tied both to Trump’s looming decision on Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and the ongoing protests on Iranian streets.

“Irrespective of U.S. decision on JCPOA, Iranian regime is a threat to U.S., its allies, and the people of Iran,” he said.

Among convention delegates will be former political prisoners and victims of political, religious and ethnic persecution.

These delegates, Sadeghpour said, “know firsthand how a correct U.S. policy impacts positively the freedom movement in Iran.”

Iranian Americans support a policy that seeks neither to appease the regime in Tehran nor to go to war against Iran, he said.

“The convention will instead advocate for a U.S. policy in support of the democracy movement inside Iran as the only viable agent of change, emphasizing regime change by the Iranian people and the organized opposition.”

Asked about the shift in approach towards Iran by the current U.S. administration in comparison to its predecessor, Sadeghpour said “the previous administration’s policy did certainly delay the inevitable, which is democratic change in Iran by the Iranian people and their organized opposition.”

 “United States policy is now traversing to better embrace the will and aspirations of the Iranian people instead of their oppressors.”

“Engagement with the Iranian people and their organized resistance is needed, not engagement with their killers,” he said. “Such a change would certainly be representative of a U.S. government exercising its moral authority, without resorting to war or appeasing the tyrants in Iran.”

Protests and engagement push

President Obama has been criticized over the years for what the non-partisan Council on Foreign Relations described as an initially “muted response” to the Iranian regime’s harsh crackdown – including dozens of killings and mass arrests – on street protests in 2009, following the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Ten days after the protests broke out, Obama for the first time condemned the violence unequivocally.

In his annual Nowruz (Persian new year) message the following March, however, he repeated an offer of engagement, first made a year earlier, telling the clerical regime that “our offer of comprehensive diplomatic contacts and dialogue stands.”

Using varying terminology, Obama went on to offer engagement and better relations with the regime in Nowruz messages every year from 2013 to 2016.

Late last December, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen told ABC News that the Obama administration “chose to not be as supportive as we could have been” during the 2009 protests.

Mullen was speaking amid an eruption of fresh anti-government protests, which began in the city of Mashhad on December 28 and then spread to more than 100 towns and cities.

Less than 48 hours after the demonstrations began, Trump voiced his support for the protestors.

“Many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with regime’s corruption & its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad,” he tweeted on December 30. “Iranian govt should respect their people’s rights, including right to express themselves. The world is watching!”

Two days later, Trump tweeted again, “Big protests in Iran. The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. Looks like they will not take it any longer. The USA is watching very closely for human rights violations!”

Last January Trump waived sanctions against Iran under the JCPOA for a further three months, but indicated that could be the last time he does so.

“Either fix the deal’s disastrous flaws or the United States will withdraw,” he said in a message directed at European allies and the U.S. Congress. He is expected to announce a decision on or around May 12.

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