A group of 53 Iranian dissidents wrote a letter, published Friday by The Daily Beast, outlining their opposition to the nuclear deal with Iran and arguing that the agreement’s failure to hold Tehran accountable for its human rights abuses, both domestic and international, will only empower the Islamic regime and endanger the world.
This deal will provide up to $150 billion windfall of cash into the bank account of our tyrants and theocrats. This money will not be spent on the Iranian people but rather to enrich a repressive regime.
Sadly, the world has not demanded real improvements in human rights. Thousands of activists continue to languish behind bars (including several Americans) and it is tragic that their release was not included in these discussions.
We are sounding the alarm bells before it is too late. Those who care about peace should help restore focus to the Iranian regime’s brutal human rights records, its support for global terror and role in destabilizing the Middle East. More pressure should be applied to the regime, not less.
The group, which includes activists who have been jailed, tortured and had family members killed by the regime, noted Iran’s ongoing sponsorship of terrorism and domestic human rights violations, writing, “Today in Iran, political prisoners are tortured. Bloggers, journalists and teachers remain behind bars. Sexual and religious rights are trampled. Women are treated as second class citizens.”
After warning that the Iranian people will remember who held their government accountable for its abuses, and who appeased it, the letter concludes:
When the Iranian regime no longer fears its people, then the world will no longer have a reason to fear the Iranian regime.
Earlier this month, Benjamin Weinthal, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote that the nuclear deal will empower the Iranian regime and intensify its repression of sexual minorities.
In July, Iranian human rights activist Amir Basiri argued that working with Iran to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) would be akin to fighting “evil with evil.”
[Photo: سبزفوتو Iran / YouTube ]