Since gaining power in the 1979 revolution, the Iranian regime has benefited from numerous efforts by Westerners to downplay its support for terrorism and its fanatical ideology, urging instead that once Iran’s wholly legitimate grievances are addressed, it will rapidly become a moderate and friendly power. Among the most zealous proponents of this approach is the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a Washington lobby whose positions are frequently mimicked by the Obama administration, as Sohrab Amari writes:
Barack Obama absorbed almost all of NIAC’s talking points; . . . these talking points are a crisp synthesis of the various lines of apologetic reasoning. . . . Recall how the president told NPR, in December 2014, that Iran’s “legitimate aspirations” should be taken into account. This was followed by the president’s remark . . . that the regime’s anti-Semitism is little more than an “organizing tool”—unpleasant rhetorical outbursts that don’t override Tehran’s other strategic interests. The hardliners-versus-moderates dichotomy, too, has found new life in the Obama administration’s accusations that the president’s own “hardline” opponents—that is, duly elected U.S. lawmakers—are empowering their hardline counterparts in Tehran.
Cut to the White House Situation Room, March 31, 2015. Diplomats in Geneva have just concluded the latest round of nuclear negotiations between the great powers and Iran, and a framework agreement is within view. President Obama has convened a debrief conference call with cabinet principals and other top officials. On the list of participants is one Sahar Nowrouzzadeh.
Nowrouzzadeh is Obama’s National Security Council Director for Iran. She is also, it turns out, an alumna of NIAC. . . . We have come full circle. The apologists are now running the show.
Read more on Commentary: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-36-year-project-to-whitewash-iran-1