In confronting aggression in Ukraine, America is upholding that freedom is still not free. Simultaneously in Iran, there’s another story of resistance, highlighted recently by ongoing protests in southern Iran that followed an extreme, sudden increase in food costs.
This latest confrontation between people and tyranny confirms again that Iran clerics are isolated and despised. But Iranians are still suppressed. “The U.S. and central media sources know their power. They are the ones who must help us,” a protester from Shiraz, Iran named Jamshid (last name withheld for security reasons) said. “The West is only focused on the Iran deal. When it comes to Iran, they forget about us. They forget about human rights.”
His plea sketches the conflict between Iranians and aggressors in Iran, like what is transpiring in Ukraine.
Two factors are keys in Iran: there is a politically weakened aggressor and people are upset by it. The resistance’s development in the country fuels both there. This dynamic, Iranian dissidents and American political leaders are saying, is why America must engage the resistance, instead of the religious mafia over Iran. In a recent function, more than 50 members of Congress expressed support for Iranians. They included Pennsylvania Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, who represents Bucks County, and Scott Perry, who represents Dauphin County and parts of York and Cumberland counties. Such a transformation of American support for the Iranian resistance would also help address the regime wanting nuclear weaponry and international terrorism since both impact America’s national security interests.
Fitzpatrick said, “Iran’s 1979 revolution … saw the end of a monarchical dictatorship and the beginning of the repressive Islamic republic … As the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Energy, and the Environment and Cyber, I remain committed to ensuring the United States stand in support of recognizing the rights of the Iranian people and their struggle to establish a democratic, secular, and nonnuclear Iranian republic.”
Perry said, “I remember (1979) well. The Iranian revolution for freedom. They wanted to throw off the chains of one-party rule, where they could actually choose their leadership and who oversaw their country and who governed it. Of course, it didn’t work out the way that they had hoped it would … But at this time, it’s important to acknowledge that the revolution was about freedom for the Iranian people, and they still want that.”
At another recent event, Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee ranking member Patrick Toomey, R-PA, Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and several other U.S. senators past and present participated. Menendez and other speakers addressed America’s role in Ukraine and called for the international community to support the Iranian resistance. And Tuesday evening, Menendez publicly said, “It is time to tell the Europeans, who(m) we have shown good faith with, that we were willing to enter into what was hopefully a stronger and longer deal, that the Iranians are not there … hope is not a national security strategy.”
Meanwhile, 500-plus prominent Iranian-Americans cautioned against presuming that tyrants in Iran can reform. They said that global efforts must focus on defending civilians and a free world. Recently, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, at the headquarters of the Mojahedeen-e-khalgh, the main opposition to the Iranian regime. It’s a significant political step with the nuclear talks stagnating and Iran’s regime facing demonstrations.
Political leaders in America are increasingly recognizing the ability of the Iranian resistance and want to empower it. As Pompeo noted, suffering in Ukraine and Iran is like what America endured. These experiences should inform helping Iranians secure basic human rights.
Source » buckscountycouriertimes