The situation in Iran is dire indeed. Anyone who believes that sane rational people on both sides are engaged in brinkmanship to secure the best advantage, but would eventually work out a compromise, is deluding himself.
We’d like to thank Dr. Iman Foroutan for this Op-Ed. If you have an Op-Ed or LTE
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In some cases, time works as a healer and even as a solution of thorny problems. Yet, this problem will not go away, and time would only make the cataclysmic clash more likely and deadly.
The time is now and the best chance for resolving the impasse is the unification of Iranian opposition groups.
The regime is in deep trouble and very unpopular. Masses of Iranians are irreparably alienated from corrupt oppressive Islamic rule. The rule of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) is crumbling and it is creating a huge vacuum that needs to be filled by united opposition group organizations immediately.
The previously solid edifice is showing many cracks that keep growing. The alienation from the regime spans the entire spectrum of Iranian society with the intelligentsia and university students leading the determined opposition to end Islamic rule. The Mullahs are greatly despised by an overwhelming majority of Iranians.
Expatriate Iranians in the U.S. are indeed diverse. A great majority supports a democratic republican form of government or a constitutional monarchy. A very small minority support a communist-extreme left persuasion. And a few belong to the Islamist-Marxist gang of the People’s Mujahidin.
This latter group has about zero support among Iranians, both in Iran as well as abroad. They are thoroughly despised by the overwhelming majority of the people for being cultists, Islamists, and at the same time traitors for being in league with Saddam Hussein against Iran during the past Iran-Iraq war.
Iranians, by tradition and temperament, are activists in the true sense of the word. We have always taken an active interest in any community in which we live. You can observe that in the United States. Iranian-Americans run for office and participate actively at all levels of civic and political life. We are not inclined to be spectators of life since we had to be active participants in order to survive in the hostile environment of our neighborhood.
Hence, a great deal of person-to-person communication takes place through all available channels, including travel, the Internet, and family contacts.
We have also been active through our organization The New Iran and continue to do so. It is regrettable that we have not become united and coalesced our forces to fight our mutual enemy.
With the election of Donald Trump, the era of appeasing the regime in Iran appears to be over. It has given us new hope in replacing the IRI with some truly democratically elected representatives. The whole thing is encouraging.
The regime’s back is against the wall and magnificent young people are pushing it hard and with great wisdom. They are making life miserable for the regime, just the way the regime has made life a true misery for the people for 41 years. The end is definitely in sight. But, we must take advantage of the situation and learn from our past mistakes and come together as one.
These Mullahs are determined to get their bloody hands on the nuclear bomb and further strengthen their position in promoting violence and mayhem in the Middle East and beyond. In the process, the Iranian people will end up being victimized. President Trump must step up the pressure on the IRI.
Once the IRI falls, the lynchpin of Islamism will be destroyed. America, Israel, and the rest of the world will be much safer without these end-of-the-worlder Mullahs being in command with nuclear weapons at their disposal. That’s another reason for us to unite before it’s too late. The survival of Iran depends on the unification of all factions and opposition groups under one umbrella.
The most promising solution is in the free world’s united support of Iranian groups opposed to the rule of the mullahs. The Iranian people themselves are fully capable and are determined to remove the cancer of Islamism from their country. The United States, Israel, and other democracies have a huge stake in the success of the Iranian people in ridding themselves of Islamic tyranny.
Dr. Foroutan is the founder and the current Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The New Iran, a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring about democracy and human rights to Iran.
