Sona Samsami
In a column published on Thursday 7 April 2016, the US representative for the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI) Soona Samsami called for Western leaders to do more than simply “pin their hopes on ‘elusive’ reforms” in Iran, in an article published in the political news and analysis journal Townhall. Ms. Samsami is also a highly active Iranian community leader and supports democratic change in Iran.
As part of her critique, Ms. Samsami resolved that Iran’s ruling theocracy “cannot be reformed” instead arguing in line with many other observers that, “real hope of reform lies within the larger Iranian society.” But just who or what can inspire the people to enact this change? Since the lifting of economic sanctions in January, allowing for the possibility of bilateral trade deals, the Iranian leadership have already shown their discontent.
After having signed the diplomatic agreement on the nuclear deal with the world powers, they test-fired a ballistic missile on Tuesday 8th March, putting the entire agreement in jeopardy. In fact, this testing violated Resolution 2231 as outlined in their UN Security Council agreement.
Ms. Samsami attributes this flagrant disregard of compliance to the brazen attitude of the dictatorial top brass, stating that, completely out of touch with reality, Ali Khamenei, an unelected although Supreme leader, had “warned that even after this deal, our policy towards the arrogant US will not change.” These incendiary comments came just days after the signing of the JCPOA agreement.
After such a red flag, how many more can be tolerated until the West recognizes the need for an entirely different gameplan? Characterizing Khamenei’s rhetoric after the deal, Ms. Samsami said that the leader casts the United States as Iran’s “enemy par excellence” and does not see the its benefit in creating new trade opportunities, but instead views the accord as mere US and UN propaganda.
He claims that the US and UN are simply trying to penetrate “the minds of Iranians and the elite” towards a regime change. However, it is possible that he is calling bluff on his own loaded rhetoric, even going so far as to criticize his own government’s agreement on the deal, lamenting “Iran’s nuclear negotiating team [for having] violat[ed] some of his redlines.”
But for Ms. Samsami, Khamenei’s redlines are all part of a “vicious ideology” which is itself taking new forms – once al-Qaeda, now ISIS, with both sharing the goals of creating an “Islamic state”, “capable of enforcing Sharia law and undermining the civilized world.” She adds that “Tehran is ever more adamant that others should follow its destructive regional policies.”
As well as putting reform in the hands of the “larger Iranian society” this endeavor, Ms. Samsami claimed, extends to the “ranks of the real opposition,” making reference to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and also the “international community and US government, for that matter, [who] can only resolve the Iranian problem by focusing on the problem itself – the regime.”
Waiting for the Iranian regime to whither and decay is a long-term, reactive option rather than proactive, and in so doing “efforts to instigate genuine change [would] fail.” Just consider figures reported in this week’s release of death penalty figures for 2015 by Amnesty. The report lists 977 executions by the Iranian regime, a staggering 82% on a regional count – a stark illustration that the apparatus of the regime must be dismantled now, not tomorrow.