FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Trita Parsi

Phone: 202-386-6325

Email: tparsi@niacouncil.org

Washington, DC – Trita Parsi, President of the National Iranian American Council, issued the following statement regarding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s presentation on Iran’s nuclear program:

“Netanyahu’s desperation to kill the Iran deal and drag the United States into war with Iran was on full display today. Netanyahu played a key role in helping con the American people into the war with Iraq and is now pulling out all the stops to do the same with Iran.

“Netanyahu revealed nothing that indicates Iran is not upholding its obligations under the nuclear deal. Anyone familiar with the history of Iran’s nuclear program or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action will not be surprised by allegations that Iran had an active nuclear weapons program fifteen years ago. Those well-known concerns were the reason why the international community negotiated an agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear program and subject it to intrusive international inspections.

“Netanyahu and others who are working to kill the deal are trying to reopen a crisis that had been contained. The nuclear deal ensures that if Iran tries to cheat, they will get caught. Exiting the agreement will take international inspectors out of Iran and eliminate the strict limits now in place on Iran’s nuclear program. Trump risks driving Iran to not just abandon the nuclear deal but perhaps the entire Non-Proliferation Treaty. Concerns about Iran’s past nuclear work will mean little in a scenario where the deal is dead, there are no longer inspectors in Iran and zero constraints on Iran’s nuclear work.

“If Trump is hoodwinked into abrogating the deal out of notions that Iran lied about its nuclear program fifteen years ago, we will be repeating the foolhardy notions that led to the war in Iraq – a catastrophe that Netanyahu promised would bring enormous benefits to the entire region.

“If Trump is truly disinclined to start a new Middle East war and putting U.S. troops on the ground for generations, he can’t listen to foreign leaders in the region who have a vested interest in dragging the US deeper into regional conflagrations.

“Unfortunately, Trump’s own advisors are likely encouraging stunts like we saw today. It is hard to believe it is a coincidence that Netanyahu’s announcement comes on the heels of Pompeo’s meeting with the Prime Minister. Trump’s war cabinet has not even been in place for a week but is already setting the stage for an all out regional war.

“Iran hawks cannot win an argument about the fact Iran is complying with the Iran deal and that abandoning the agreement would be a disaster. Thus far they have resorted to relitigating the terms of the deal by claiming to want to fix it, now they are relitigating the history of Iran’s nuclear program.”

Trita Parsi is the 2010 recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order and an award-winning author. He is the president of the National Iranian American Council and teaches at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. His latest book is Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy.