The President of the United States referred to it in a tweet in his latest response to allegations about granting citizenship and residency rights to officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran and their children during the previous US administration.
President Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday, July 3: "It has just been revealed that the Obama Administration granted citizenship to 2,500 Iranians, including officials of the Islamic Republic, during the terrible Iran nuclear negotiations. How big (and bad) is this?"
In recent weeks, contradictory news about granting green cards to children of Islamic Republic officials has been circulating, coinciding with the final months of the Obama administration, but in recent days, some American media outlets, including Fox News, have published more details about this claim.
On Monday, Fox News reported: "Several children of current and former Iranian officials are living in the United States, including Ali Fereydoun, the son of Hossein Fereydoun, Rouhani's brother and special assistant, and Fatemeh Ardeshir Larijani, the daughter of Ali Larijani, the speaker of the parliament."
“Many ordinary Iranians are shocked and feel betrayed by the fact that the children of regime officials are living and working in the United States,” Saeed Ghasemi-nejad, a researcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank, told Fox News. “The regime officials chant ‘Death to America,’ but they send their children to the United States, a place far away from the hell they have created in Iran over the past four decades.”
Fox News did not provide further information about the cities they live in or the immigration status of Ali Fereydoun and Fatemeh Ardeshir Larijani, and it is not clear from its report whether they are in the United States on green cards or have American citizenship and passports.
Obama's "Concessions" to the Islamic Republic of Iran
Republicans have criticized Barack Obama since the nuclear negotiations.
One of their criticisms was the payment of money to Iran at the time of the agreement. The Obama administration paid two sums of $400 million and $1.3 million to the Islamic Republic of Iran. The administration at the time said that the first sum was the US debt to Iran and the second sum was the interest on it about four decades later.
Republicans did not accept this claim and said that the Obama administration had paid blackmail to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
A few days after the payment, Jason Rezaian and several other American prisoners were released from Iran.
Another example of what Republicans see as the Obama administration’s “concessions” toward Iran was revealed in a report by the website Politico. According to the report, while the Obama administration was working hard to reach a nuclear deal with Iran, it was secretly thwarting efforts by the US Drug Enforcement Administration to target Iranian-backed terrorists in the Lebanese group Hezbollah.
US Republicans accused former President Barack Obama of obstructing investigations into Hezbollah's drug activities during nuclear negotiations with Iran.
It was after this that the US Attorney General announced that an investigative group had been formed within the ministry to identify individuals and organizations that support Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Reflection of Zolnoor's words
In another report, the network quoted Mojtaba Zolnour, a representative of Qom in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, as saying that during the JCPOA nuclear negotiations, the United States granted American citizenship to 2,500 Iranians, including the families of officials. This claim was met with a reaction from the State Department spokesman in the Obama administration.
Zolnour, who is considered an opponent of Hassan Rouhani's government, claimed in a statement published in the Fars News Agency nearly a week ago that these citizenships were a favor to Iranian officials associated with Hassan Rouhani, and also claimed that this action caused Iranian officials to compete over whose children would benefit from these privileges.
However, Fox News wrote that there is no indication that these individuals in the JCPOA story have received US citizenship, and it is not clear whether Zolnour means citizenship or a green card.
The network also published the response of Marie Harf, the US State Department spokesperson in the Barack Obama administration, who said that Zolnour's words were nonsense.
Under US law, foreigners can enter the US on work, student, and other visas. Some types of visas can be converted into "permanent residency" or a green card. Those who receive a green card in this way can obtain US citizenship after five years. For some groups, including those who receive a green card through marriage, this waiting period is three years.
Citizenship allows foreigners to enjoy all the rights of other Americans in the United States, including the right to vote, hold certain government jobs, and even run for office.
Source: Voice of America
