America's real agreement must be with the Iranian people.
An Iranian-American political researcher and entrepreneur, in an article for the influential Washington-based website The Hill, envisions a bipolar world with the authoritarian governments of China and Russia on one side and the United States, which, despite all its shortcomings, remains democratic, on the other. He writes that by welcoming the people of Iran, the United States will weaken the world's authoritarian wing.
S. Rob Sobhani, founder and president of the Caspian Group consulting firm in Virginia, wrote in an article published on Wednesday, August 11, after listing the mismanagement, corruption, violence, and repression in Iran, that the fundamental question facing US President Joe Biden is not whether to rejoin the JCPOA or limit the Islamic Republic’s malign activities in the region. Rather, the fundamental question is whether the Iranian people deserve to live in peace and tranquility.
Mr. Sobhani compares Iran's progress in the last 42 years to that of South Korea, whose economy was 40 percent smaller than Iran's in 1978, and is now four times larger. He also compares Iran and Turkey, writing that Turkey's economy was 20 percent smaller than Iran's 42 years ago and is now twice as large.
He concludes that the Islamic regime has stifled the Iranian nation and wasted the country's potential through "horrible mismanagement," and calls on Mr. Biden to tell Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to "take his knee off the necks of the innocent people of Iran."
Sobhani, a former Georgetown University professor and author of a book on Iran-Israel relations, writes that supporting the Iranian people’s struggle for democracy, human dignity, and human rights should be a central feature of U.S. policy toward Iran. While negotiating with the Islamic Republic’s leaders gives them a legitimacy they don’t deserve, he writes that issuing a statement in support of the Iranian people is not only the right thing to do, but also the smart thing to do.
He considers the consequences of the fall of the Islamic Republic and the formation of a popular government in Iran to include the bankruptcy of political Islam, as well as the development of Iran's oil and gas reserves for export to Europe - which could reduce Europe's reliance on Russia - and adds that Iran's peace and cooperation with its neighbors will lead to economic modernization in the region, and military spending can be spent on developing human capital.
Mr. Sobhani adds that instead of manipulating bankrupt countries, the Iran of the future can extend a hand of friendship to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and, with their cooperation, work on the reconstruction of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.
Mr. Sobhani writes that accepting the Iranian people into the bloc of free countries will isolate the world's autocratic bloc and will be a victory for American foreign policy.
Source: Voice of America
