On March 20, President Obama marked Norooz, the Iranian New Year, with his strongest words to date in solidarity with the people of Iran. "Though times may seem dark," he told Iranians, "I am with you."
Days later, with significant US backing, the UN Human Rights Council voted to establish a human rights monitor on Iran, answering the call of Iranian human rights and democracy activists.
This was an impressive victory for the president's strategy of UN engagement and was praised by international human rights organizations as a tangible means to help protect human rights in Iran.
It was also an important demonstration of how President Obama can translate supportive rhetoric into meaningful action to stand with the Iranian people. As we have learned from the past, lofty rhetoric about freedom is meaningless without sound policies behind it.
The president's critics predictably dismissed the monitor victory as too modest, too pragmatic, too dependent on international support. They fail to acknowledge that three decades of enmity and conflict will not be resolved in a single step.
There are a number of crucial measures to build on the monitor effort. Though they may not appear sweeping enough to some, they actually make a difference. The absence of a silver bullet should not prevent us from taking these small but important steps to stand with the Iranian people.
Fix Visa Policies for Iranian Students
Iranian students are a critical demographic of Iran's human rights and democracy movement.
Recognizing this, President Obama directed much of his recent Norooz address to the majority of Iranians who were born after the turmoil of 1979 that sparked decades of US-Iran enmity. In last year's Norooz address, the president even committed the US to seeking "a brighter future" for these young Iranians by expanding student exchanges with Iran.
President Obama should honor this promise by fixing a glaring problem for young Iranians seeking to study here: the Single-Entry Visa policy.
For many young Iranians, studying abroad offers a reprieve from the repression they face at home from their government. Students have faced increased restrictions since 2005 under Ahmadinejad that has only escalated in the aftermath of the 2009 elections. And students seeking to study abroad are pressured not to study in the west, with some Iranian officials even threatening to ban study in the US entirely. Instead, students are provided incentives to study in Russia and China.
But those Iranians who do choose to seek to attend American schools face significant and unnecessary restrictions from the US government. Under the Single-Entry Visa policy, students who come to the US cannot leave for the duration of their studies without losing their visa.
Iranian students at American schools find that the restrictions under the Single-Entry Visa policy cost them academic opportunities and cuts them off from their families. Students have shared stories about not being able to visit ill relatives and, in one case, being prevented from returning to Iran for the funeral of a family member who was executed by Iran's government.
These students ask why the US, if we say we are friends with the Iranian people, subject them to restrictions that no other nationals from Middle East countries face.
Obama should take the seemingly small but vastly important step to repeal the Single Entry Only policy and allow Iranian students to obtain a multiple-entry visa to study in US schools. There is no better way to convey our friendship with Iran's youth than to offer an outstretched hand as Iran's government clenches its fist.
Eliminate Internet Restrictions
As former New York Times Tehran correspondent Nazila Fathi explained recently at a NIAC conference on Capitol Hill, "If the US wants to help, the first thing [Iranians] need is access to the Internet."
Unfortunately, the US imposes its own firewall on Iran through sanctions that restrict software and hardware from being exported to Iranians.
"Lift the sanctions," says Fathi. "Iranians cannot even buy Skype credits to talk on Skype lines, they have to rely on telephone lines that are monitored by the Iranian government. There is satellite internet over Iran, but because of the sanctions they cannot access it."
The first step to supporting Internet freedom in Iran is for the US to get out of its own way.
The Obama administration worked during the height of the Green Movement protests in 2009 to shield certain types of communication software from sanctions. Unfortunately, it took nine months to lift restrictions, and only on rudimentary chat software.
Other basic tools that Iranian activists want access to remain blocked without a special license. For instance, Google's secure web browser Chrome was not allowed in Iran until January of this year -- a full year and a half after the June 2009 elections -- because Google did not have the necessary US government license.
President Obama should move swiftly to allow the free flow of communication tools to Iranians. The US should exempt useful Internet software, hardware, and services from this counterproductive, cumbersome licensing requirement.
End Humanitarian Restrictions
In 2009, Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) introduced legislation to sanction Iranian human rights abusers and companies that support Internet censorship, while easing restrictions on US humanitarian and human rights organizations.
The sanctions eventually became law, a positive step. But the proposal to allow humanitarian and human rights organizations to work in Iran has yet to be acted on, so these activities face restrictions similar to those on Internet technology,
In fact, in 2003 the US eased these restrictions in response to the devastating earthquake in Bam, Iran -- but only temporarily. The efforts of humanitarian groups like Mercy Corps and Relief International to assist in disaster relief over that twelve month period did not just address a moral imperative, they helped engender goodwill among the Iranian people and benefited US interests.
We should not bar Americans from working directly with Iranians to improve child and maternal health, treat drug addiction, or prepare and respond to natural disasters. The president should permanently lift the restrictions that prevent Americans from exporting goodwill to the people of Iran.
Many of these proposals have languished for lack of political space in Washington and a demand for silver bullets. But while these measures may seem small to some, they will enable the US to make a positive impact. President Obama now has an opportunity to create his own space and match his promises with important policy adjustments. He must not miss this opportunity to truly stand with the Iranian people.
Jamal Abdi is Policy Director and Trita Parsi is President of the National Iranian American Council, the largest grassroots organization representing the Iranian-American community in the US.
Follow Jamal Abdi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/niacouncil
1- Due to visa problem, Iranian student numbers have gone from over 30,000 (late 70s) to ~4000 (today).
2- These students are coming from top Iranian schools for graduate studies in top U.S. schools. Regime members use investment and other easy visa channels available to wealthy. So there is negligible overlap between the two groups.
3- U.S. does a background review when providing visa using digital databases already in use for monitoring others entering the country. This is common practice for a few other middle-eastern countries. If later information reveals risks about an individual, they are added to those databases, which will stop them from re-entering the U.S.
3- In fact letting an individual exit the country provides the option to not let them back in, should there be evidence of risk. Single-entry visa keeps these people inside the U.S.!
4- Empirically, the security risks of Iranian students have been minimal. For the last 10 years FBI has interviewed hundreds of them, several thousand background checks have been conducted, and many thousands have been in the U.S.; I am not aware of any terrorism related incident from this crowd in the last 20 years.
5- The majority of these students later become experts and entrepreneurs in the U.S., with significant economic contributions. So besides sound foreign policy, multiple entry Visa's make a lot of sense economically.
Are you gays really supporting the mullahs' dictatorship? If so, then please do not, do not, do not even get close to any issue concerning Iranians or Iran all together. Because the mullahs are our main ENEMY and so are the ones who are supporting these criminals!
Didn't the WMD in Iraq (and the babies torn from incubators before that) teach you that your government and media are perfectly willing to lie to you?
It's hardly a conspiracy theory to call out the military cleric nature of IRI.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MD02Ak01.html
Every items the authors say about visa to US is correct. But, US policy towards Iran and Iranians is seen through the lenses of the tyranny of house of Saud of Arabia and Israel. The build in animosity between US government and people against Iran and Iranians, who have nothing against US and even US government except its imperial design in the middle east, because of oil and Israel, prevents any rational decision making in US.
And it's always been your contention that Iranians don't have a problem with Americans BUT WITH the government. But now they don't???? BS. How convenient.
The US doesn't have an issue with IRANIANS either. But we surely do distrust the regime. But you seem to expect that the US should just open it's doors... and just blindly accept that only "students" are going to come over. Sorry but that's pretty naive. There are ZERO diplomatic relations with Iran... but we should just open the doors and say... come on in.
And now you're adding SA to the mix of who tells the US what to do. Again, how convenient. Before it was just the Great Satan and Israel. Wonder whose next...
I think this is just another excuse and opportunity for you and your Masters to "blame" the US instead of blaming who REALLY is to blame... the murdering cowards of the IRI.
US is afraid to become civilized by Iranian culture.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b31ub3SbL5c&feature=player_embedded
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/world/africa/11iht-iran.4.9947324.html?pagewanted=2
"Iranians' love affair with America"
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0119/p09s02-coop.html
"Why Iranians like America again
It reflects a sense of alienation from their own rulers."
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2008/0603/p09s02-coop.html
"Why Iranians like America (Washington Post)"
http://jeffweintraub.blogspot.com/2006/09/why-iranians-like-america-washington.html
"The paradox of Iran is that it just might be the most pro-American - or, perhaps, least anti-American - populace in the Muslim world,"
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/2/23/160301.shtml
"They do immediately express frustration with America, but you can feel underneath it a real longing to have better relations and an appreciation that you're there and listening to them. So, by the end, they are actually projecting a real sense of warmth."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89683583
"These people like Americans. It's cool to like Americans," Steves said. "I've never been in a country where it was as much a plus to be American as in Iran."
http://www.seattlepi.com/default/article/Iranians-like-Americans-well-not-Britney-1296987.php
Why do we want to bomb Iranians?
To satisfy the tyranny of house of Saud of Arabia. We have done this recently for them:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MD02Ak01.html
Persian culture has swallowed many cultures in her 5000 years history. American culture looks like a pretty nice appetizer to me.
then SHOOT.......... Financially speaking!
NOT to mention the UNeducated POLITICIANS who said "things" like:
"The internet is a Series of Tubes"....LOL...
and my favorite:
"I can see Russia from my Backyard"....LOL
The best thing that we can do is open the sanctions, allow goods to come in and start supporting the freedom movement, not by guns but by financial means and media support. The people will take care of the rest.
One more issue that would greatly cut the current regimes powers is eliminating double standards with respect to Israel. Because that is one of the major rallying point for this government. People might hate this regime but they also are very much aware of our policies toward Israel vs. the rest of the countries in the region.
That is a point of hesitation for believing in our support and our motives.
There absolutely no proof for this contention.
Quite the opposite was true during the last Iranian revolution and the hostage crisis.
The same cannot be said for the hundreds of thousands of innocent people who we have killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
My question still stands-- why is it any different right now?
A divided country; a leader who refuses to recognise the writing on the wall; an opposition movement backed by global opinion; the threat of a massacre of civilians: the similarities between the situation in Libya and Ivory Coast are striking. And yet the former has dominated the world's attention and prompted a humanitarian intervention, while the latter has elicited nothing more than an international shrug of indifference.
There are, of course, differences as well as similarities between the two emergencies. In Libya, it was the illegitimate despot, Gaddafi, who last month was threatening a massacre. In Ivory Coast the danger comes as a consequence of the United Nations-recognised opposition's push to take control of the Abidjan stronghold of Laurent Gbagbo, who lost last month's election but refuses to step down.
balance
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-double-standards-from-the-west-will-only-feed-the-suspicions-of-the-rest-2260009.html
Well thats a mistake right there.
are SERVANTS of the
SILKQ = Special Interests Lobbyists Kings & Queens (SILKQ).
Iranians KNOW that Democrats & Republicans are screwing each other while the
American AGENTS/Lobbyists of Israel (Major Most powerful Group of SILKQ) provide
FREE VIAGRA to both Democrats & Republicans !...but NO Condoms!
VIAGRA purchased by a TINY TINY TINY TINY TINY TINY
fraction of the US "Foreign Aid" to Israel amounting to $Billions Every Year!
Amid the furor over Iranian duplicity, the IAEA passed a resolution calling on Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and open its nuclear facilities to inspection.
The United States and Europe tried to block the IAEA resolution, but it passed anyway. The media virtually ignored the event.
The United States assured Israel that it would support Israel's rejection of the resolution -- reaffirming a secret understanding that has allowed Israel to maintain a nuclear arsenal closed to international inspections, according to officials familiar with the arrangements. Again, the media were silent.
Indian officials greeted U.N. Resolution 1887 by announcing that India "can now build nuclear weapons with the same destructive power as those in the arsenals of the world's major nuclear powers," the Financial Times reported.
Both India and Pakistan are expanding their nuclear weapons programs. They have twice come dangerously close to nuclear war, and the problems that almost ignited this catastrophe are very much alive.
Obama greeted Resolution 1887 differently. The day before he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his inspiring commitment to peace, the Pentagon announced it was accelerating delivery of the most lethal non-nuclear weapons in the arsenal: 13-ton bombs for B-2 and B-52 stealth bombers, designed to destroy deeply hidden bunkers shielded by 10,000 pounds of reinforced concrete.
http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20091105.htm
http://www.rense.com/general85/ownh.htm
http://www.counterpunch.org/cook09152009.html
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/gsmith.php?articleid=14229
Let me tell you as an Iranian student going through this before: the issue is about re-entry visas. with current policy, which by the way is a counter response to the same policy from Iran, only single-entry visas are granted to Iranians, even though for all other nations students visas are multiple entry (eg., Saudi Arabia, where the Al-Qaedeh bombers originated and got to us under student visa, or Egypt, the birth place of Al-Qaedeh).
We can live even with single-entry visas, just allow us to apply for re-entry visa in the country and wait in the country for clearance check. The current process is that when you get out, there is a two-three months clearance check that wrecks your school work while you are waiting outside.
And to those who say Iranian students better go study in China or Russia: I have nothing to tell you.
~ Pat Buchanan