President Trump Reacts to Claims of Green Card and Citizenship Being Granted to Islamic Republic Officials in Previous U.S. Administration
The President of the United States responded in his latest reaction to claims about granting citizenship and residency to Iranian Islamic Republic officials and their children in the previous U.S. administration, referring to it in a tweet.
President Donald Trump wrote on Tuesday, June 3rd on Twitter: It has recently been revealed that the Obama administration granted citizenship to 2,500 Iranians including official representatives of the Islamic Republic during the terrible nuclear negotiations with Iran. How big (and bad) is this?
In recent weeks, conflicting news has been reported about granting green cards to children of Islamic Republic officials coinciding with the final months of the Obama administration, but in recent days some American media outlets, including Fox News, have published more details of these claims.
On Monday, Fox News reported: “Several children of current and former Iranian officials are living in the United States, including references to Ali Fridoon, son of Hossein Fridoon, brother and special assistant to Rouhani, and Fatima Ardeshir Larijani, daughter of Ali Larijani, Speaker of Parliament.”
“Said Ghassemi Nejad,” a researcher at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a research institute in Washington, told Fox News: “Many ordinary Iranians are astonished that the children of regime officials are living and working in the United States and feel they have been betrayed… Regime officials chant ‘Death to America,’ but they send their children to the United States, a place far better than the hell they have created in Iran over the past four decades.”
Fox News did not provide more information about the cities where they live or the immigration status of Ali Fridoon and Fatima Ardeshir Larijani, and it is not clear from the report whether they hold green cards in America 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 amounts of 400 and 1.3 billion dollars to the Islamic Republic of Iran. The administration at the time said the first amount was America’s debt to Iran and the second amount was its interest over approximately four decades.
Republicans did not accept this claim and said the Obama administration paid ransom to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
A few days after these payments, Jason Rezaian and several other American prisoners were released from Iran.
Another matter that Republicans consider a “concession” by the Obama administration to Iran was revealed in a Politico website report. According to the report, while the Obama administration was working hard to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran, it secretly sabotaged the efforts of the U.S. “Drug Enforcement Administration” in targeting Iranian-backed terrorists in the Lebanese Hezbollah group.
American Republicans accused former President Barack Obama of obstructing investigations related to Hezbollah drug activities during nuclear negotiations with Iran.
After this, the U.S. Attorney General announced that a task force had been formed in the department to identify individuals and organizations supporting Lebanese Hezbollah.
Echo of Dholnour’s Remarks
The network, in another report, citing Mojtaba Dholnour, representative from Qom in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, wrote that during the JCPOA nuclear negotiations, America granted citizenship to 2,500 Iranian nationals including families of officials. A claim that was met with a response from the spokeswoman of the Obama administration’s State Department.
Dholnour, who is considered one of the opponents of Hassan Rouhani’s government, nearly a week ago in remarks published on the FARS News Agency, claimed that this citizenship was a favor to Iranian officials related to Hassan Rouhani and also claimed that this action caused Iranian officials to compete over which of their children would benefit from these concessions.
However, Fox News wrote that there is no evidence that these individuals received American citizenship in connection with the JCPOA, and it is unclear whether Dholnour meant citizenship or a green card.
The network also released the reaction of Marie Harf, spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department in Barack Obama’s administration, who said Dholnour’s remarks were nonsense.
According to U.S. law, foreign nationals can be present in America through work visas, student visas, and so on. Some types of visas can be converted to “permanent residency” or green cards. Those who obtain a green card this way can receive American citizenship after five years. For certain groups, including those who obtain a green card through marriage, this waiting period is three years.
Citizenship gives foreign nationals the right to enjoy all the same rights as other Americans in the United States, including the right to vote, access to certain government positions, and even to run for elected office.
Source: Voice of America
