http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/23/iranian-dissidents-seeking-meeting-with-trump.html
Iranian
dissidents seeking meeting with Trump
By Ben Evansky
Published December 23, 2016
President-elect Donald Trump infuriated
the Chinese by breaking with years of protocol in accepting a call from
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. Now, members of the Iranian opposition are
seeking a similar phone call – even a sit-down – with the incoming president,
hoping he keeps to his campaign vows to renegotiate the Iran nuclear deal and
get tough with Tehran.
Fox News has exclusively obtained a letter
being presented soon to Trump from a group of influential Iranian dissidents,
asking him to follow through on reconsidering the deal, even as President Obama
has cautioned against ripping it up.
"During the presidential campaign, we
and millions of Iranians followed your forthright objection to the nuclear
agreement reached between the Obama administration and the Islamic Republic of
Iran,” the letter reads. “We sincerely hope that with your election, the
new administration and the United States Congress will have the opportunity for
the first time to review the regional and international outcomes of that
disastrous agreement without any reservations, as was promised to the
voters."
Signatories include several former Iranian
political prisoners and human rights activists such as former political
prisoners Ahmad Batebi and Siavash Safavi, also a member of the Iranian Liberal
Students & Graduates.
"We hope under your leadership the
United States helps the Iranian people to take back their country from the
Islamist gang which has been in charge for the last four decades," they
wrote.
Although not party to the letter, The
National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) is widely seen as the most
organized opposition group – and also is welcoming engagement with Trump.
"Obviously,
the president-elect is preoccupied with forming his Cabinet and laying out a
roadmap to meet the challenges his administration will be facing once he is
sworn in. But the expectation is that the new administration would pursue a
decisive policy vis-à-vis the Iranian regime and impose sanctions, as they
relate to Tehran's gross violations of human rights of its citizens as well as
its involvement in terrorism, including its role in the bloodbath we have been
witness to in Aleppo in recent weeks. Any engagement should be with the Iranian
people and not their oppressors," said Ali Safavi, a member of the Foreign
Affairs Committee of the NCRI.
While the Iranian government calls the
group terrorists, the NCRI’s network of supporters in Iran helped the U.S. with
intel during the Iraq invasion, and the group also helped expose Iran's nuclear
weapons program.
Over the past several years, the pro-Iran
nuclear deal lobby led by the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) had
the Obama administration’s ear. Now, some are now hoping Trump will reach out
to the myriad Iran opposition groups, ranging from the Monarchists to the
Liberals.
The NCRI has supporters among some in
Trump's circle, according to a source close to the Trump campaign and team.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity,
the source told Fox News that senior Trump advisers such as Newt Gingrich, Rudy
Giuliani and former ambassador John Bolton have "very close ties to the
strongest component of the Iranian opposition, the NCRI."
"These advisers, though, will be
pushing a cooperation with the Iranian opposition to force Iran to
cooperate," he said.
It’s unclear whether Trump has any plans
to take a meeting with Iran dissidents and groups. The transition team has not
responded to a request from Fox News for comment on whether any meetings had
been held or scheduled.
The regime likely would be outraged by any
such discussions, according to Saeed Ghasseminejad of the Foundation for
Defense and Democracies in Washington D.C.
"In the short term [the mullahs] will
show some anger and will test the new administration, but in the medium term,
they understand the Trump administration is serious and will have to adjust
their behavior knowing that [Trump] means business,” Ghasseminejad said.
“Meeting with a diverse group of representatives of major opposition parties
sends a strong message to the regime and Iranian people that the new
administration supports democracy and human rights for Iran."
Lisa Daftari, an Iran and foreign affairs
analyst and editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk, believes it would be a
positive move for Trump to meet opposition members from other groups so he can
"get an accurate read on the people of Iran."
"In cutting a deal with Iran,
President Obama went straight to the mullahs, leaving out the Iranian people,”
she said. “It would be a strategically strong move for President-elect Trump to
include the Iranian people -- a force of almost 80 million that continues to be
the Achilles’ heel of its government."
