{"id":61236,"date":"2016-02-29T18:54:13","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T18:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2016\/02\/29\/commentary-the-iranian-american-moment\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:26:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:26:38","slug":"commentary-the-iranian-american-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/commentary\/2016\/02\/29\/commentary-the-iranian-american-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: The Iranian American Moment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Iranian Americans have had an important role in facilitating the rapprochement between the US and\u00a0Iran, hoping that <\/span>this would will <\/span>instigate positive changes in the latter. They should pursue their effort to\u00a0push for reforms in Iran to that will <\/span>bring stability to the region and curb the sectarian conflict\u00a0shattering it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Iran is taking part in this conflict by supporting the Bashar al-Assad regime, hence prolonging the war in\u00a0Syria, backing the Houthis in Yemen\u00a0and buttressing the Shia militias in Iraq while blocking al-Abadi’s reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideology is the reason behind Iran\u2019s behavior. lies in the fact that the regime is driven by\u00a0ideology. <\/span>In Iran, there is a duality between the “state” and the “revolution.”\u00a0The country has\u00a0pragmatists who advocate economic development and those to whom the advancement of the\u00a0country is secondary to the maintenance of the ideology on which the revolution is built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Didn’t\u00a0Khomeini say, “We did not start the revolution to slash the price of watermelon?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the ideologues,\u00a0the sectarian conflict is a dream come\u00a0true allowing them to “export the revolution.”\u00a0Since 1979,\u00a0the only success in “exporting the revolution” has been Hezbollah in Lebanon. However, due to the\u00a0conflict, ideologues are “exporting the revolution” all over the region by supporting revolutionary\u00a0style militias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pragmatists, on the other hand, who advocate Iran as a “state,” have no interest in these\u00a0conflicts that drain the country\u2019s funds and resources and nurture unnecessary regional enmity\u00a0toward\u00a0it. The burning of the Saudi Embassy exemplifies is an exemplification of <\/span>this internal conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ali\u00a0Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader,\u00a0and his security forces meant, primarily, to embarrass President Hassan Rouhani and weaken him domestically\u00a0prior to\u00a0the upcoming elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here comes the role of Iranian Americans. The nuclear deal has witnessed a surge in Iranian-American activism. A grassroots movement is developing and organizations that traditionally have\u00a0focused on the community as well as those that have been active in criticizing the regime’s human rights\u00a0abuses have been advocating the deal. Their rationale is that the <\/span>opening up of <\/span>Iran will expose the\u00a0futility of the ideology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other dimension of this premise\u00a0is that once the American threat fades\u00a0away, hard-liners will lose the basis on which they are concentrating power. Driven by this hope,\u00a0Iranian Americans have advocated normalization with Iran and this movement has been gaining\u00a0momentum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, the opposite of what optimists have anticipated is happening. As events\u00a0unfold, this hope has proved to border naivety. In order to save face and show that they have not\u00a0compromised on their principles and sold their soul to the “Great Satan,”\u00a0the regime has intensified\u00a0support to its proxies in the Arab world. Hard-liners have had a free hand in exchange for their\u00a0acceptance of the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Iran\u2019s image in the Arab and Islamic world has reached an unprecedented low. The Pew Research Center’s\u00a0for <\/span>Global Attitudes and Trends survey in 2015 shows that 89 percent\u00a0of the population in Jordan\u00a0view Iran negatively;\u00a0in Lebanon only 5% of the Sunni population are positive about Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is bad\u00a0news for Iran the “state” that is interested in having trade relations, cross investments and expertise\u00a0exchange with its Arab neighbors. On the other hand, driven by ideology, the regime does not see\u00a0any problem with the growing animosity towards Iran. On the contrary, ideologues seek to nurture it\u00a0by making provocative statements ridiculing the sovereignty of Arab states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A member of\u00a0parliament close to Khamenei has had <\/span>claimed that four Arab capitals are under the control of the\u00a0Iranian revolution. On another occasion, Khamenei himself said that he is going to use Lebanon as a\u00a0platform to fight America, totally disregarding the country\u2019s sovereignty.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iranian Americans have played had <\/span>an important role facilitating meetings between the US and as they facilitated meeting\u00a0between <\/span>Iranian and US officials. They have always had one mantra: opening up of<\/span> Iran will weaken\u00a0the hard-liners and push Iran to play a constructive role in the regional order. They have to pursue\u00a0this role in order to make sure that the premise on which the deal was\u00a0built is fulfilled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that the\u00a0sanctions are lifted, Iranian Americans can travel freely to Iran, offer support to the pragmatists\u00a0and\u00a0instigate an indigenous change in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is\u00a0It is <\/span>the moment for Iranian Americans to play a greater role by liaising among between <\/span>the US, the\u00a0pragmatists in Iran, and the Arab world in order to ensure that Iran chooses regional political\u00a0stability and domestic economic growth over regional hegemony. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A poll by the Washington-based Zogby Research Services in 2006 found Iran’s favourability rating in<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arab and Muslim countries at around 75%. http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/iran-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

blog\/2015\/nov\/24\/iran-isis-movie-arabs-songs-of-my-homeland<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dania Kolielat Al Khatib <\/strong>is a specialist in US-Arab Gulf relations and the author of,\u00a0“The Arab Lobby and the US: Factors for Success and Failure.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iranian Americans should continue pushing for reforms in Iran to bring stability to the region<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":116486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":66,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[66,33,17],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1700],"class_list":["post-61236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-home","category-opinion"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"M2DXK2NGZRGU5FNK6IHV6ZA7AQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/opinion\/commentary\/2016\/02\/29\/commentary-the-iranian-american-moment\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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