Date: 11th November 2016

The Honorable Donald Trump

President-Elect of the United States of America

Dear Mr. President-Elect,‎

I have the pleasure of extending my congratulations on your election as the 45th President of the ‎United States of America, and my best wishes for the success of your Presidency to bring, ‎peace, happiness, and prosperity for the American people.‎

I would like to take this opportunity to bring to your attention issues that are of vital importance ‎for the future of the Iranian people and their relationship with the United States in particular, ‎and the international community at large.‎

Today, the Iranian people, the Middle East and the free world face an existential threat from ‎radical Islam, which is a direct by-product of "Khomeinism" and its revolution in Iran in 1979. ‎Ever since, the leaders of the Islamic Republic have methodically executed their plan of ‎exporting Khomeini's ideology of political Islam. This regressive ideology has spread like a ‎cancer across the globe: from the Middle East to Asia and Africa, and even to Europe and the ‎Americas. ‎

To further their aims, the leaders of the Islamic Republic and their henchmen have used ‎terrorism, political assassinations, mass executions, crimes against humanity, cyber terrorism, ‎proxy wars, hostage taking, money laundering, as well as arms and drug trafficking, which has ‎resulted in regional and global destabilization and conflicts.‎

Fifteen months ago, the Iran National Council for Free Elections declared our conditional ‎support for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the nuclear program, primarily to avert ‎the risk of war and prevent the theocratic regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon. However, at ‎the time we warned that it is an illusion to think that the engagement policy could moderate the ‎behavior of the Islamic Republic, and that unless the provisions of the agreement are enforced ‎unequivocally, the agreement would indeed embolden the regime, to both increase its ‎oppression at home and its hegemonic policies abroad. ‎

That is why we asked that safeguards be implemented, so as to ensure that the regime cannot ‎use the billions of dollars that the lifting of sanctions would release, to finance oppression and ‎terrorism, and to sow regional conflicts and proxy wars.‎



Mr. President-Elect,‎ the overwhelming majority of the Iranian people wish to be partners with the free world and ‎participate in its values of humanism and democracy. This urge for freedom is best exemplified ‎by the daily struggles of Iranian women who are treated as second-class citizens. They continue ‎to demonstrate their desire for equality, despite the continuous brutal oppression that is waged ‎upon them.‎

Our struggle is not about religions, nor is it a war of civilizations. We are engaged in a struggle ‎of values against those advanced by radical Islam. In any event, the solution is neither war, nor ‎maintaining the status quo. The best policy for defeating political Islam is to support the ‎democratic desire of the Iranian people: to engage, once and for all, in a true dialogue with the ‎secular and democratic forces. ‎

It is important to recognize and acknowledge that the only effective and legitimate form of ‎political change in Iran, is a process implemented by and at the hands of the Iranian people. ‎Moral and political support from the free world for the vast majority of Iranians can only be ‎regarded as a positive contribution to a swift, non-violent transition to a secular and democratic ‎government through free and fair elections in Iran.‎



The Iran National Council for Free Elections hopes that your administration will bear in mind ‎the aspiration of the Iranian people and engage the secular democratic forces, providing support ‎for the struggle of my fellow compatriots for peace, freedom, and democracy. ‎



Yours sincerely,‎

Reza Pahlavi

‎

President ‎

Iran National Council for Free Elections

