EMET Thanks Bipartisan Coalition of Senators for Standing Up Against Iranian Aggression

EMET Thanks Bipartisan Coalition of Senators for Standing Up Against Iranian Aggression
(Washington, DC, December 22, 2015) Today, the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) gave strong thanks to a bipartisan majority of U.S. Senators for their calls on the Obama Administration to sanction or otherwise punish the Islamic Republic of Iran for its continuing post-Iran Deal aggression, duplicity and violations of international law. EMET echoes this call, as more information continues to come to light exposing how the Iran Deal is a complete and utter farce.

The 159 page Iran Deal, negotiated by the P 5 plus 1 nation’s – the US, the UK, France, Germany, China and Russia – officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was announced on July 14, 2015. The UN Security Council voted in favor of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2231, which incorporated the JCPOA, on July 20, 2015. In return for a supposed freezing of their nuclear weapons program, the JCPOA will give the Islamist Iranians roughly $150 billion in frozen oil money, and billions more in international sanctions relief. The Obama administration has said it expects to start lifting sanctions on Iran as early as January 2016. The Obama Administration has admitted that the JCPOA is a set of “political commitments” and not a treaty or an executive agreement or even a legally binding document.

 
Technically, Islamist Iran has never agreed to the JCPOA. In October of 2015, the Iranian parliament rejected the 159 text of the JCPOA. Instead, the Iranian parliament approved its own version of the JCPOA, more than 1000 pages long, which, among other things, strips the United States’ ability to “snapback” sanctions and calls for the dismantling of Israel’s nuclear weapons program. Ayatollah Khamenei, the real power in Islamist Iran, has endorsed this new version of the JCPOA, to which he attached some additional conditions of his own.

 
Nevertheless, the Obama Administration, and other Western nations, perhaps eager for economic trade with Islamist Iran, continue to pretend that a real deal was reached.

 
Since the JCPOA was announced, the Islamic Republic of Iran has increased its violations of international law, acts of military and terror aggression, and verbal insults. Most prominently, Iran has twice violated the UN ballistic missile testing restrictions on it. On Oct. 10, Iran tested a medium range ballistic missile called the Emad. On Nov. 21, Iran tested another one, the Ghardr-110. These tests violate UNSCR 1929, which was still in effect when the testing occurred. If these testing violations reoccur after UNSCR 2231 takes effect, which the Islamist Iranians have repeatedly promised they will, Iran will also violate that resolution. The wording of the UNSCR 2231 states “Iran is called upon not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology, until the date eight years after the JCPOA Adoption Day or until the date on which the IAEA submits a report confirming the Broader Conclusion, whichever is earlier.” (Annex B, Paragraph 3). Ridiculously, the Islamist Iranians have argued that UNSCR 2231 only bans missiles “designed” to carry a nuclear warhead, not those missiles which are simply “capable of” carrying a nuclear warhead. Thus, because the Iranians claim – in contradiction to the facts – that they have never and will never pursue nuclear weapons, neither of the two missile tests would violate the UN resolution.

 
In addition to these tests, Islamist Iran has seized additional American hostages, refused to cooperate with the IAEA investigation of their nuclear weapons program, increased its military aid to the dictator Bashar al-Assad who continues to slaughter thousands in Syria, threatened international shipping in the Persian Gulf, and created a new terror group in Gaza, among other hostile acts.

 
It is vital to recognize that Islamist Iran is one of the bitterest and most dangerous foreign enemies to the United States. Since 1979, and the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, the Iranian regime has committed numerous acts of war against the U.S. It has supported and directed terrorists that have killed hundreds of Americans, including marines, in the 1983 bombings in Beirut, and in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers; it has supplied IEDs to Iraqi rebels during the 2000’s that have killed hundreds if not thousands of US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it planned a 2011 bombing of a Washington, DC restaurant to kill the Saudi Ambassador. Iran has been the leading state sponsor of terrorism for thirty years. Every year, the Islamist Regime holds celebrations of the seizing of the American Embassy where the crowds chant “Death to America” and burn American flags. Islamist Iran is also developing intercontinental ballistic missiles which are only necessary for Iran to threaten the continental U.S. and Europe.

 
Islamist Iran is also a dedicated enemy towards the U.S.’ strongest Middle East ally, and the only democratic nation in that region, Israel. Iran has sponsored both Shia and Sunni Arab terror groups, like Hezbollah and Hamas, which have gone to war against Israel multiple times, and have targeted and killed hundreds of Israeli civilians. Iranian leaders frequently call for Israel’s destruction, and often in hysterical and genocidal terms.

 
Since 1979, Islamist Iran has implemented an aggressive plan to dominate the Middle East, and post-2013, it has actually bragged of its success. Iran has long waged a covert campaign to turn Iraq into a virtual client of Tehran — and in the process alienated Iraqi Sunnis and pushed them toward extremism. By 2015, it has largely succeeded in making the Shia government of Baghdad into an Iranian puppet government. Iran has also propped up the Basher Assad dictatorship in Syria, which has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Arab civilians, and allowed for Sunni jihadists groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS to take advantage of the chaos by creating their own territories. Iran continues to rule Lebanon, through its brutal jihadist proxy, the terror group Hezbollah, which prior to 911 had more American blood on its hands than any other Islamist terror group. Iran is fomenting unrest among Bahrain’s Shiite majority in an attempt to force regime change in the oil-rich Sunni monarchy that is allied with the U.S. Islamist Iran also supports Shia rebels in Yemen who have seized much of that nation.

 
“I would like to thank the strong bipartisan majority in the U.S. Senate,” said founder and President of EMET Sarah Stern, “for making it clear to President Obama that there must be some consequences for recent Iranian aggressions.” She concluded, “By willfully blinding ourselves against Iranian acts of aggression, we are not only empowering the mullahs to behave in more destabilizing and potentially destructive acts against the United States and her allies in the region, but we are continuing to sacrifice our own international credibility.”

About The Endowment for Middle East Truth
Founded in 2005, EMET’s mission is to educate policymakers in Washington and the general public about the importance of Israel to the United States in their common struggle against radical Islam. For more information, please visit www.emetonline.org. Follow EMET on twitter and facebook.