Kayvan Kaboli

Since the presidential election on November 4th 2008, the pro-Iranian regime lobby groups have tightened their belts for the upcoming hunting season. With the historic changes in the White House, Iran lobby has been trying to influence the new administration to implement their desirable foreign policy. That the U.S. must negotiate with the Iranian regime without any preconditions, lift the sanctions and to give the Mullahs more chances and incentives in order to bring them in line with the International community.

So far, there have been three attempts made by these groups:

On November 18th, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) hosted a congressional briefing to present a report by 21 “Experts“. In a nutshell, the message in that report was simply recommending Obama administration to allow the Iranian regime to be a key player in the Middle East and to lift all the pressure. The “experts” told the new administration that the Iranians do not want a regime change and prefer to keep the Islamic Republic.

The second attempt came on December 3rd. This time New York University was the hippodrome of some “Academics” and “Experts” to deliver speeches on Iran and U.S. relations. One could easily recognize the same “Experts” at the one day Event held by NYU Center for Dialogues Conference. The underlying message by the “Experts” to the Obama administration was identical throughout the conference; Give more carrots to the Iranian regime and be nice with the Mullahs.

The third strike unfolded in the form of a report titled “Pathway to Coexistence A New U.S. Policy toward Iran” written by Suzanne Maloney and Ray Takeyh and released by the Council on Foreign Relation and the Brookings Institution.
It’s not hard to guess what recommendations have been given to the new administration by the authors. Actually, these suggestions have been around since 1997 by almost the same experts, regardless of different situations and conditions both in Iran and the United States. Lift the pressure of the Iranian regime and coexist with the Mullahs.

Ironically, this time, at the hunting season, there is no easily attainable prey in sight. Both the Iranian regime and its lobbies had a fantasy before the elections; a favorable change by Obama administration toward lifting the sanctions and buying more time for  the Mullahs in order to acquire the atomic bomb. No wonder that these days the rhetoric has been intensified by IRI’s rulers and regime’s lobbyist groups complaining about the President-Elect not keeping his promises to bring about changes. What these lobby groups failed to realize is that the change could be made in the right direction aiming at the real and extensive pressures on the Iranian regime previously ignored by the former administration.

December 18, 2008