Newsmax
By Bill Hoffmann
Regardless of the nuclear arms deal it has just agreed to, Iran remains the world’s biggest sponsor of terrorism, says Ali Safavi, a member of Iran’s Parliament in Exile, National Council of Resistance of Iran, and president of the Near East Policy Research (NEPR).
“In many respects one has to recognize that the problem really isn’t this nuclear deal. With or without a deal, the Iranian regime remains the main state sponsor of terrorism around the globe,” Safavi said Wednesday to John Bachman and Miranda Khan, hosts of Newsmax TV’s “Newsmax Now.”
“Unfortunately, for everything the U.S. received from Tehran, it has given up much, much more including … the billions the Iranians will transfer into the coffers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which will in turn wreak havoc in the Middle East, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
“The president tried to sort of compel members of Congress to go along with this deal by saying that if you don’t accept it, then the alternative is war.”
But Safavi said Iranians believe that argument is a false narrative.
“There is another option. The Iranian people do not support his regime. They want change as was demonstrated in 2009,” he said.
“So if anything, if one is really interested to bring an ultimate end to Iran’s nuclear weapons program, one has to embrace the Iranian people, the organized opposition.”
Asked why Iranians were seen celebrating in the streets after the announcement of the deal, Safavi told Bachman and Kahn:
“Iranians in some respect have been repressed and tormented by the policies of this regime. The fact that you saw some Iranians in the streets of Tehran … one doesn’t know whether it does reflect the sentiments of 80 million Iranians.”
Under the historic deal, financial sanctions imposed by the U.S., the European Union and United Nations would be lifted. In return, Iran agrees to lengthy curbs on its nuclear program, which many believe was aiming at the building of a nuclear bomb.