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Raymond Tanter: Stop Iran regime and its missile attacks on dissidents

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Raymond Tanter, a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan and president of the American Committee on Human Rights, has highlighted the reasons he believes are behind the Iranian regime’s terrorist rocket attack on October 29 on thousands of members of the main Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (PMOI or MEK) in Camp Liberty, Iraq.

“About 80 missiles made holes as deep as 7 feet and wide as 8 feet—including 122 mm Katyushas and those Tehran produced—the NB24 Russian missiles,” Prof. Tanter wrote in The Hill on Saturday.

Prof. Tanter added:

Why is Iran targeting its opposition? Dissidents block the goal of Tehran—to control Baghdad and Damascus where we are fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Washington’s evolving strategy is DOA on the Hill unless the administration reaches out to the opposition and sees Iran as a threat across the porous border.

How to counter the threat from Iran? Align with others opposing Tehran and the bipartisan congressional coalition sharing that view.

Saudi Arabia’s alignment against Iran includes Israel as a silent partner. Saudis view Tehran and Damascus unfavorably. A potential partner for Riyadh and Washington is the Iranian Resistance that rejects clerical rule in Tehran. All define the threat as Islamist.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir asked, Is Iran a “state or a revolution?” If it wants to export its 1979 revolution and revive the Persian Empire “we cannot deal with it.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in his UN speech on October 1 that shifting alliances in the Middle East drew Arab countries like Saudi Arabia closer to Israel in confronting Iran and ISIL. His speech before the Congress stated that, “Iran’s regime poses a grave threat…to the peace.”

On April 29, the House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing, “ISIS: Defining the Enemy.” Maryam Rajavi is President-Elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the coalition of which the MEK is the largest unit; she testified from Paris. Her written testimony showed how Tehran is an Islamist epicenter of terrorism to establish an Empire without borders and called for empowering the democratic tolerant Islam she represented.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), garnered bipartisan criticism on the Hill. At a May 5, 2014 press conference, Senate Committee on Armed Services (SCAC) Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) announced completion of markup of National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016. That Act had language to counter Iran’s influence in Iraq and protect the MEK, now in Camp Liberty. An SCAC hearing on Iranian Influence in Iraq and the Case of Camp Liberty focused on resettlement of the MEK from Camp Liberty outside Iraq.

Bipartisan statements by over a dozen senators indicated Secretary Kerry should protect the MEK in Iraq and waive regulations to permit MEK members to enter the USA and contribute to the economy in alignment with our humanitarian values, as stated by several senators and General James Jones, USMC (Ret.), first National Security Advisor to President Barack Obama.

“The U.S. government and military made a commitment to protect thousands of people [MEK] who surrendered their weapons and came under our protection as a result,” McCain said. “Clearly, this commitment has not been sustained.”

Ranking member, Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), expressed a desire to help these oppositionists. “The Iranian dissidents at Camp Liberty are in an increasingly perilous situation, having repeatedly come under attack. These horrific attacks, which have killed more than 100 MEK members since 2009, clearly indicate the threat to this group from Iran and Iranian-backed militia seeking to eliminate and silence these dissidents.” Add about 30 others from the attack on Oct 29, 2015.

McCain described the MEK as a group that received “protected persons” status in 2004 under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Col Wes Martin, former Commander, Forward Operating Base Ashraf until 2006, testified that the United States provided ID cards for each Protected Person under the authority of the American military on behalf of the U.S. Government.

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), invited by former colleagues to attend as witness, testified that America would be “disloyal to our…national values if we did not find better ways–overt and covert–to support the democratic opposition to the dictatorial regime in Iran.”

Senators backed the moderate pro-democracy tolerant Islam of the MEK instead of allowing the Islamist regime in Tehran to suppress that organization. With such bipartisan backing, there is enhanced likelihood the MEK can expand the NCRI coalition for regime change from within and broaden its base in Iran given that expectations will be higher in a post-nuclear-agreement Iran.

The way forward: Alignment with those opposing Tehran, congressional allies sharing that view, and prevention of attacks like the missiles on Camp Liberty.

Prof. Raymond Tanter is a former White House National Security Council senior staffer.