Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei casts his vote in Iran’s 2013 presidential election. (Photo by Mohammad Sadegh Heydari via Wikimedia Commons.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Iran designated NIAC as the Iranian lobby in the U.S. and coordinated its efforts with government agencies in Tehran. To its American audience, NIAC, founded in 2002 by Iranian Trita Parsi, presented itself as \u201cthe largest grassroots Iranian-American organization advancing the interests of the Iranian-American community.\u201d But only our government seemed to believe this. When polled, Iranian Americans felt that NIAC was a lobby for the ayatollah\u2019s Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n
From its inception, years before the Obama presidency, DC-based NIAC and its allies advocated that the U.S. must offer broad \u201ceconomic, security, and diplomatic concessions\u201d to Iran; \u201cembark on a policy of unconditional dialogue and sanctions relief\u201d to normalize relations; and in the interest of regional stability, encourage an Iranian \u201csphere of influence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much of what we know about NIAC\u2019s activities comes from internal documents of a 2008 defamation lawsuit NIAC filed against an Iranian U.S. journalist who had called NIAC and Parsi \u201ckey players in the lobby enterprise of Tehran\u2019s ayatollahs in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
Court evidence exposed NIAC\u2019s central role in promoting Iran\u2019s geopolitical interests. Parsi, NIAC\u2019s first and only president, has ties to Tehran and maintains a long-term working relationship with Iranian Foreign Minister and chief nuclear negotiator Mohammad Javad Zarif. The court dismissed the case in 2013 and found that Parsi\u2019s work for NIAC was \u201cnot inconsistent with the idea that he was first and foremost an advocate for the [Iranian] regime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parsi dangled \u201caccess to Iranian markets\u201d before various business interests. Perhaps Boeing was one of them? He advocated \u201crespecting\u201d the Islamic Republic, insisting that Iran and the U.S. shared common goals. A 2008 NIAC document stated that, in one month, NIAC met with more than 50 Democratic and Republican members of Congress.<\/p>\n
In articles and a book, Parsi urged the U.S. to distance itself from Israel, \u201cthe sole force behind\u2026the sanctions against Iran,\u201d and launched a campaign to minimize the importance of Iran\u2019s systemic anti-Semitism, which he called irrelevant.<\/p>\n
The 2008 election of Obama gave the Iranian lobby an ally in the White House. Had Khamenei been able to personally select a U.S. president, he could not have chosen one more aligned with his goals than Obama. Both were convinced that the U.S. was the source of problems around the globe and both were committed to U.S.-Middle East disengagement.<\/p>\n
During his 2008 presidential campaign, Obama used a secret back channel to Tehran via William Miller, former U.S. ambassador to Iran, to assure Khamenei that he would like Obama\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n
Echoing the 50-year Iranian blame-claim against the CIA, Obama, in his 2009 Cairo speech, said that the U.S. \u201cplayed a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government\u201d and, later that year, parroting NIAC messaging, stated the U.S. \u201cseeks a relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran based upon mutual interests and mutual respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout his first term, Obama displayed his eagerness to engage with Iran, sending letters to Khamenei and repeating NIAC\u2019s talking points regarding Iran\u2019s important potential leadership role and the need for rapprochement.<\/p>\n
In a 2011 Huffington Post article, Parsi advocates for Iran\u2019s legitimate role in the Middle East and asks, \u201cIs the United States ready to share the region with Iran?\u201d In a 2012 letter to Obama, NIAC urges negotiations over Iran\u2019s nuclear program \u201cto prevent war,\u201d painting critics of d\u00e9tente as warmongers.<\/p>\n
In his second term, no longer restrained by re-election realities, the American president pushed detente with the terror state and a nuclear deal in keeping with NIAC\u2019s lobbying goals. The Obama administration defined the Iran situation as a choice between \u201ca nuclear deal or war,\u201d a dichotomy straight out of NIAC\u2019s (and Iran\u2019s) playbook.<\/p>\n
In December 2014, Obama told NPR that Iran\u2019s \u201clegitimate aspirations\u201d should be respected. He speculated that the Islamic Republic \u201ccould be a very successful regional power.\u201d Interviewed in The Atlantic, Obama claimed that the regime\u2019s anti-Semitism is just an \u201corganizing tool,\u201d used \u201cat the margins\u201d and didn\u2019t override Tehran\u2019s other strategic interests. Again, NIAC messaging. Convinced that Israel was an impediment to rapprochement with Iran, Obama put \u201cdaylight\u201d between Washington and Jerusalem, a recommendation promoted by Parsi.<\/p>\n
Throughout the Obama presidency, NIAC continued to proselytize State Department, Department of Defense, White House, and CIA personnel; briefed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; and met with Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. Two former NIAC staffers are important advisors to the president and the State Department on Iran policy.<\/p>\n
The Iranians used their influence to manipulate a malleable, inexperienced American president\u2014a man predisposed to the idea of Iranian Middle East hegemony\u2014to capitulate to the world\u2019s most prolific state sponsor of terror. They realized that Obama was desperate for a nuclear deal to jump-start his transformative foreign policy legacy, and used this vulnerability.<\/p>\n
In David Samuels\u2019s New York Times interview in May, Ben Rhodes, Obama\u2019s deputy national security adviser, bragged about creating an \u201cecho chamber\u201d within the media and organizations outside of the White House to sell the Iran nuclear deal to the public. He failed to mention that it was Iran\u2014through NIAC, its American lobby\u2014that created an \u201cecho chamber\u201d within the Obama administration to promote the deal in the first place.<\/p>\n
Khamenei took the measure of our president and played Obama like a fiddle, with NIAC as its bow. He\u2019s now reaping the benefits of this sophisticated shell game.<\/p>\n
Ziva Dahl is a fellow with the Haym Salomon Center with a Master of Arts degree in public law and government from Columbia University and an A.B. in political science from Vassar College. Her bylines appear in the New York Daily News, the New York Observer, and The Hill.<\/em><\/p>\n
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