In a statement or letter addressed to the US President Barack Obama, dozens of US top current and former officials expressed doubt about the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran and demanded that the US must stick to a tough stance in dealing with Iranian mullahs. The statement was announced at the Grand Gathering of the Iranian Resistance given to Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president elect of the Iranian Resistance by members of the large American delegation took part in that gathering.
In an article published in the Forbes Magazine, Dr. Walid Phares writes in that statement a number of former US officials and foreign policy experts call for four specific policy initiatives:
1) The application of stricter demands in the nuclear negotiations with Iran;
2) Confrontation of Iran’s destructive and destabilizing role in the Middle East;
3) Increased attention to the abysmal Iranian record on human rights
4) To help facilitate action on the first three points by engaging in “respectful dialogue with the Iranian opposition, consistent with our country’s policy of dialogue with all political groups.”
A copy of the statement was presented to Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and its main constituent organization the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, at a gathering of Iranians in Paris with more than 100,000 participants. This statement is significant for a number of reasons:
First, witness the combination of the signatories which included senior former US officials and military leaders with knowledge on national security and foreign policy. And at a time of unprecedented partisan politics in Washington (particularly regarding Iran), the Policy Initiative includes both senior Democrats and Republicans.
Second, it has identified lack of communication and dialogue with the Iranian democratic opposition by both Democratic and Republican leadership as the missing part of U.S. policy on Iran.
Third, it offers a practical approach on nuclear negotiations with Iran as well as the crisis in the region by recognizing that Tehran’s leadership has shown no desire for abandoning its nuclear program. The regime is part of the problem—not the solution.
Fourth, the core of the new Policy Initiative is the recommendation to “break the stalemate” and to “side with 80 million Iranian people and their desire, along with people everywhere, for freedom and popular sovereignty based on democratic principles” and “engaging with the Iranian opposition.” In this respect the bipartisan collation also recognizes the role of “Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, as a Muslim woman advocating a tolerant and democratic interpretation of Islam.”
American luminaries are advocating for the U.S. government to open up direct, collaborative talks with the Iranian resistance
The message delivered at this rally is one of broad-based change in Iran—away from the religious fascism of the current regime and towards true democracy, rule of law, respect for the rights of women and minorities, and other similar principles outlined in Mrs. Rajavi’s 10-point plan for the future of the country.
Looking at such a political platform, it is easy to understand why so many American luminaries are advocating for the U.S. government to open up direct, collaborative talks with the Iranian Resistance. It represents the very thing that U.S. policy in the Middle East should be focused on—but isn’t, namely the empowerment of moderate and progressive Muslim groups for the sake of delegitimizing and marginalizing the all-too-common extremist element.
Sadly, current policies seem to embrace an inaccurate and limiting narrative about the Middle East which views radicalism as a necessary element of regional culture and politics. We can see this, for instance, in the Obama administration’s efforts to encourage Iranian influence in Iraq in hopes of playing off the Shiite theocracy against the Sunni militants of the Islamic State.
But there are few real distinctions between those two groups, and any outcome of a conflict between them is a net loss for Western interests in the Middle East. The recent policy statement makes it clear that its American signatories understand this. The document points out that the Islamic Republic of Iran is effectively the prototype for Middle East, state-sponsored Islamist extremism. It says, “If ISIS succeeds, what the world will get is a Sunni version of Khomeini’s Iran.”

Guest post written by Walid Phares
Dr. Phares is author of “The Lost Spring: US Policy in the Middle East and Catastrophes to Avoid.”.