As the Iranian regime has intensified its campaign to fuel the war in Gaza, call for elimination of Israel and spread anti-Semitism, Trita Parsi, president of pro-Tehran lobby group NIAC has published an article praising Iranian leadership for being silent on the war in Gaza, soft toward Israel and pursuing a moderate foreign policy

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Hassan Dai, August 11, 2014

Since the beginning of hostilities in Gaza, the Iranian regime has embarked on a large scale campaign to fuel the hostilities and promote its anti-Israeli foreign policy. Major Iranian TV stations and official platforms have been entirely dedicated to the war in Gaza and numerous demonstrations have been organized to mobilize the public. In a fiery speech, the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called Israel a rabid dog, promised end of Israel and urged the shipment of arms to the Palestinians in the West Bank.

In a public speech, President Hassan Rouhani called Israel a “festering Zionist tumor”. Foreign minister Javad Zarif organized an emergency one-day meeting of The Palestine Committee of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) at the ministerial level in Tehran. During his speech, Zarif urged “international courts to deal with Israel’s serious crimes in Gaza” and Rouhani criticized “Israel’s policy of exterminating Palestinians and called its actions “genocide.”

Tehran Friday prayer Imam blasted the Arab leaders’ silence on Israeli crimes in Gaza. Iranian officials bragged about military support to Hamas and General Hossein Salami, deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards declared that “the Palestinian militants in the West Bank will be supplied with rockets very soon.”

The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, Commander Qasem Soleimani released an unprecedented statement and declared:

“The whole world should know: Disarming the resistance is wrong. It’s a delusion that will not be realized. Before the almighty God, we take an oath with the martyrs that we will remain bound to and not change, just like we are and have been in doing our religious duty in supporting the resistance. We emphasize that we continue to insist on the victory of the resistance … until the ground, the sky, the sea for the Zionists turns into hell. And the murderers and mercenaries should know that not even one moment will we stop our defense and support of the resistance and our backing of the Palestinian people, and we will have no doubt in this.”

According to Al-Monitor, Soleiman’s letter demonstrates the growing attention paid to the war in Gaza by top Iranian officials, who have openly called for arming both Gaza and the West Bank.

Obviously, the Iranian regime’s large scale campaign about the war in Gaza has not been heard in Washington as Trita Parsi, president of National Iranian American Council (NIAC) * a pro-Tehran lobby organization has published an article and praised the Iranian leaders for their silence on Gaza that reflects a new moderate foreign policy in Tehran.

In his article, Parsi asks why “Tehran been silent on Gaza” and claims that “Iran’s relative silence on the Gaza war has been deafening.” He continues with his delirious claim and writes: “Iran is usually known for jumping on every possible opportunity to blast Israel for its treatment of Palestinians… But by their own standards, Iranian leaders have remained curiously quiet on the ongoing, month-long fight.”

Then, Parsi tries to explain the reason of Iranian alleged silence: “Shifting dynamics across the Middle East and a new president in Tehran have changed Iran’s political calculus on Palestine. The election of Hassan Rouhani last year and the success thus far of ongoing U.S.-Iran diplomacy have visibly tempered Tehran’s public posture on Israel.”

In an effort to soften the image of Iranian regime and prove that Iran has changed its position toward Israel, Parsi claims that under President Rouhani, Iran’s position on Holocaust has changed: “Iran has gone from questioning the Holocaust under the former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to tweeting Rosh Hashana blessings under Rouhani.”

Parsi knows well that Presidents have no real power in Iran and regime’s position on Holocaust has not changed. In March 2014, after Rouhani became President, the Iranian Supreme Leader, the most powerful figure in the Iranian regime, publicly questioned the reality of holocaust and tweeted his anti-Semitic declaration in English. At that time, Parsi called the SL’s declaration “extremely problematic and deeply disappointing.”

Parsi’s deceitful article is the continuation of his campaign that started in 1997 and aims to pale Iranian regime’s anti-Semitism and mask its anti-Israeli crusade. Parsi’s book and statements go beyond scholarly works because they theorize and legitimize a large-scale lobbying campaign to manipulate public opinion and shape US policy towards Iran. This campaign has helped the Iranian regime to advance its strategic goals in the Middle East.

* Some facts about NIAC

In 2008 NIAC and its president Trita Parsi brought a defamation lawsuit against one of its critics to break him under financial burdens of the lawsuit and as a result, silence all other critics. The lawsuit obliged NIAC to release part of its internal documents that revealed the organization’s toes to Tehran and some of its illicit activities.

On September 13, 2012 U.S. District Judge John Bates dismissed the lawsuit and in a second ruling, sanctioned NIAC and Trita Parsi for discovery abuses including false declaration to the court and ordered them to pay $184000 for defendant’s legal expenses. (Read More: NIAC lost defamation lawsuit and was punished for legal abuses)

Some of these documents show that NIAC defrauded IRS, lied to the court, defrauded NED Congressional funds, coordinated its lobby with Iranian ambassador to the UN and collaborated with two individuals named by US Congressional report as the agents of the Iranian intelligence ministry.

Court documents also show that in 2002-2003, while president of NIAC, Parsi profited from his presence inside Congress and his close relationship with Congressman Bob Ney to prepare reports about the latest developments regarding Iran and sent these reports to Atieh Company in Tehran. Atieh paid Trita Parsi for his work. Parsi continued to send reports about his lobby activities to Atieh director in Tehran. (Read more: “NIAC’s partners in Iran: Iran’s economic mafia and regime associates”)