The uproar over a letter sent to Iranian leaders by 47 Republican senators warning that a future president could void an agreement over Tehran’s nuclear capabilities should not distract from the key issue: the threat posed by a nuclear Iran, the U.S. spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, Ali Safavi, said Tuesday on Newsmax TV’s “America’s Forum.”
The letter, organized by Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton and signed by all but seven of the Republicans in the Senate, represents the feelings of the majority of the American people, according to Safavi.
“Seventy-two percent of the American people are very skeptical about whether the current negotiations will result in preventing Iran from getting the bomb,” he said. “Members of Congress, who are the elected representatives of the American people, are basically voicing the same kind of concern that the American people are.”
Details of the negotiations are secret, but Safavi said that based on what he’s heard, he does not believe the deal would be sufficient enough to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb.
Iran is not being compelled to discuss its past activities, potential military aspects of its nuclear program or answer outstanding questions from the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), according to Safavi.
“Unfortunately, IAEA has been sidelined by the P5+1 and there’s no serious mechanism of verification,” he said. “You’re dealing with a regime that has a three-decade history of denial, deception, and duplicity. Until and unless these questions are answered, I’m not at all too certain that even if the deal did go through, it would result in preventing Iran from getting the bomb.”
In failing to force Iran to answer for its history of transgressions, the Obama administration has conveyed a message of weakness, he said.
“They see that the brazen human rights record in Iran has gone unnoticed,” he said.
“They’ve hanged 89 people in the past week alone, including six Kurdish dissidents. The meddling in Iraq continues, so clearly for them, they have not gotten a signal that the United States is willing to stand up to their mischief behavior.”
At a minimum, the White House is “misguided” in its belief that, if it can reach a deal with Iran over its nuclear program, “all other problems that exist out there because of Iran’s behavior will go away,” according to Safavi.
“History has shown that the more concessions you give to this regime, you make it more brazen and more emboldened,” he said. “Look at Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen. The Iranians right now are running the show in Iraq.
“There were 4,000 Americans killed in Iraq. Is this what they have fought and died for? The United States has spent billions of dollars in Iraq. Was it for Iranians to have the supremacy in that country?”