Statement
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2017: Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC) welcomes Congressional efforts towards designating “Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization.”
In testimony before Congress last week, Mr. Trump’s nominees for the Central Intelligence Agency as well as the Departments of State & Defense echoed a collective sense of concern about Iran’s “malign” role in the world. Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson, for example, indicated that he would call for a thorough review of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), leaving open the need to cancel, renegotiate, strengthen, or replace the deal in the long run.
Similarly, General James Mattis described the Iranian regime as the biggest contributor to instability in the region, adding that American policy in Iraq and Afghanistan should be focused on countering Iran’s “malign influence,” which in his assessment is growing in the wake of the policies initiated by the Obama administration. These testimonies make clear that “the Iran problem” is not limited to the weaknesses or strengths of the JCPOA in its current form, but also extends to the persistent extraterritorial belligerence of the Iranian regime and its appalling human rights record.
Indeed, the IRGC’s primary focus has been to preserve Iranian theocracy first through suppression of the Iranian people and second, by conducting extraterritorial terrorism. Accordingly, diminishing IRGC influence and reach would weaken this prominent pillar of Iran’s religious dictatorship.
Organization of Iranian American Communities-US (OIACUS), as the largest, most active and enduring grass root organization of Iranian Americans in the United States warmly receives recent Congressional efforts, spearheaded by Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and James Inhofe (R-OK) and Chairman Michael McCaul as well as Representatives Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Ted Poe (R-TX) – to “hold the IRGC accountable for its terrorist actions.”
Iranian Americans will also join their representatives at a January 24th Congressional briefing to present their policy recommendations on Iran with their representatives in Washington, DC.
Contact: Dr. Majid Sadeghpour at Majid.Sadeghpour@oiac.org
Tel: 202-876-8123
SOURCE Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC)
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