Group of Iranian Political Activists Urges Trump to Intensify Sanctions Against IRGC and Khamenei

A group of Iranian political and civil activists wrote a letter to Donald Trump, the elected President of the United States, urging the new U.S. administration to "expand existing sanctions against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the financial empire of Ayatollah Khamenei." The letter also states, "We ask the future government to formulate a comprehensive sanctions regime against those Iranian officials who have violated the rights of Iranians over the past four decades." The letter is signed by thirty political activists, former prisoners in Iran, and civil activists, including Bahram Baqti, a human rights activist and former political prisoner, Abdolreza Ahmadi, a political activist and former political prisoner, Siavash Safavi, a former political prisoner and member of the Liberal Students and Graduates of Iran, Arash Sobhani, a musician and human rights activist, and Nima Rashdan, a digital democracy researcher. The Persian text of this letter was published on December 24, and Fox News reported a day earlier that it had received an exclusive copy of this letter, noting that "a group of Iranian opposition" is currently seeking to establish phone contact "and even face-to-face meetings" with Donald Trump. Fox News writes that "it is unclear whether Trump has plans to meet with Iranian opponents and groups or not. The Trump transition team did not respond to Fox News's request for comment on this matter or whether a meeting has taken place or is scheduled." Donald Trump, who will begin his presidency in less than a month, promised during his election campaign to adopt a tougher approach toward the Iranian government compared to the Obama administration. The sending of this letter to Donald Trump has sparked various reactions on social media, with Fars News Agency and Rajanews labeling the letter as a "treasonous act." The letter criticizes the policies of Barack Obama's administration toward Iran, stating, "In 2009, millions of Iranians demanding democracy took to the streets of Tehran and called for President Obama's support for their protests. In a disappointing response, the Obama administration, in an unbelievable shift and a 180-degree turn from all fundamental values of the United States, was secretly corresponding with Ayatollah Khamenei, the lifelong leader of Iran, while protesters were being shot in the streets of Tehran." The letter continues: "Thirty-four years ago, when 'Ahmad Qasir,' an 18-year-old Lebanese, executed the first suicide bombing of the 20th century under the orders of the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Hezbollah, there was no news of al-Qaeda and ISIS. The massacre of the writers of 'Charlie Hebdo' should also be seen as just another link in the chain that began with the fatwa for the murder of British writer Salman Rushdie by Ayatollah Khomeini, and today the government prize set for it has reached millions of dollars." The authors of this letter further state: "Dividing terrorists into good and bad and negotiating and signing contracts with a government that, alongside full support for terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah and effective involvement in the deaths of thousands of American soldiers in Iraq and Lebanon, still insists on the bounty for the murder of writers and journalists in other countries will only pave the way for far more painful tragedies." The letter continues: "ISIS and the Islamic government of Iran are two sides of the same coin of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. The global nightmare of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism will only end when the Islamic Caliphate (ISIS) and the Islamic government in Iran are replaced by democratically elected systems that support peace and prosperity." It goes on to say: "Unfortunately, Iranians are one of the main victims of the harmful approach of the past eight years of the U.S. government in the Middle East. An example of these harmful policies is the secret delivery of hundreds of millions of dollars in cash to the commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the financial empire of Ayatollah Khamenei in exchange for the release of hostages, which encouraged the Islamic Republic to further repress at home and increase its intervention in the region, to the point that today our country is on the brink of a full-scale war with Arab neighbors and other U.S. allies." This section of the letter refers to reports indicating that following the implementation of the nuclear agreement, Iran received $400 million in cash from the United States simultaneously with the release of American prisoners. In the section regarding the request for intensified sanctions, the letter states: "We ask the elected President to send this clear message that the United States will not tolerate the increasing threats of the Islamic Republic of Iran against its citizens and its neighbors. The new government, in cooperation with Congress, must expand existing sanctions against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the financial empire of Ayatollah Khamenei and ask the Treasury Department to strictly enforce these sanctions." The text continues: "We ask the future government to formulate a comprehensive sanctions regime against those Iranian officials who have violated the rights of Iranians over the past four decades. Iran's ballistic missile program is a threat not only to the region but to the world; we ask the elected President to form an international coalition to pressure the Islamic Republic of Iran and compel this regime to stop its long-range ballistic missile program." In the concluding sections of the letter, it adds: "We believe that the United States must confront the destructive behavior of the IRGC in the region, on all fronts, and with all available tools. The Achilles' heel of the Islamic regime is that the people of Iran no longer support it. We ask the new government to support pro-democracy Iranians whose goal is to replace the Khomeinist regime in Tehran with a government based on liberal democracy." The letter concludes: "It is time for the United States to stand with the people of Iran instead of engaging in secret negotiations with corrupt and Islamic fundamentalist rulers. A post-Islamic Republic Iran has the potential to be one of America's most steadfast allies in the world. We hope that under your leadership, America will help the people of Iran reclaim their country from the extremists who have ruled it for four decades; a world without the 'Islamic Republic' and 'Islamic Caliphate' will be a better place to live."