US Ambassador Adam Ereli in Townhall: Reform of Iran’s Regime Is Fundamentally Impossible

there are no moderate mullahs in Tehran

there are no moderate mullahs in Tehran

by Navid  Felker

On Friday, September 6, former US ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain (2007 to 2011) and Principal Deputy Assistant to Secretary of State (2011-2014) Adam Ereli wrote an article in TownHall regarding the danger of appeasing policy in escalating the Iranian regime’s terrorist threats.

“… in reality, there are no moderate mullahs in Tehran, and reform of that regime is fundamentally impossible. This has always been the position of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and its main constituent group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK), which explains why the Iranian regime is determined to eliminate this group and its members. In addition to the attempt to blow up the NCRI’s rally outside Paris and attacks against the MEK’s headquarters in Albania last year, the government of Iran executed an estimated 30,000 MEK political prisoners in the summer of 1988.” wrote Ereli in his op-ed.

“ Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei publicly acknowledged the role of the MEK in organizing the anti-regime protests that rocked all parts of Iran in 2018 is a telling admission of the group’s ability to rattle the regime.“

He added

Creating illusions about reform is a part of the regime’s policy for prolonging its existence and maintaining the appeasement policy, along with its continued domestic oppression and export of terrorism abroad.

Due to its institutionalized fundamentalism, the regime is focused on eliminating its main opposition movement via demonizing campaigns and terrorist plots.

In this regard Ambassador Ereli wrote: “Tehran’s support for terrorism goes beyond the Middle East and threatens both Europe and the U.S.

“ The Paris bomb plot led immediately to the arrest of an Iranian diplomat, Assadollah Assadi, who was found to be the mastermind. A French intelligence investigation determined that he had been acting on explicit orders directly from the highest levels of the regime. Moreover, he was using the cover provided by his diplomatic status and Iran’s embassies abroad to disguise the regime’s terrorism. Germany extradited Assadi to Belgium, where he and three of his agents are now awaiting trial.

“As Iran’s Foreign Minister, it is impossible for Javad Zarif not to have been aware of this plan to set off explosives on European territory. Given the use of Iranian diplomatic facilities abroad, it is also reasonable to conclude that he was in fact complicit.” Ereli said.
“The international community, sadly, seems not to care. French President Macron’s invitation to the G-7 gave the regime’s globetrotting propagandist an opportunity to put a smiling face on intolerable actions and to whitewash a 40-year history of terrorist financing and human rights violations,” he continued.

“European and American policymakers must resist the impulse to offer Tehran concessions in the vague hope of encouraging a moderate shift in the regime’s behavior,” added Ambassador Ereli.

“Over the past four months, Iran has bombed or hijacked more than half a dozen commercial tankers, imprisoned French and British academics and violated the 2015 nuclear deal’s limits on uranium enrichment.”

“Sticks, not carrots, are the correct policy prescription for dealing with the murderous Iranian regime. As Mark Dubowitz and Rueul Marc Gerecht, whose think tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies was recently sanctioned by the government of Iran, put it in an August 29 Wall Street Journal editorial, Zarif ‘has proved a faithful factotum of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a handmaiden to terrorism. If Mr. Zarif must appear at international gatherings, he should be challenged aggressively over his government’s ongoing record of criminal activity. Anything less will encourage Iran to act with increasing impunity, with devastating consequences,’” Ambassador Ereli concluded