The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis -- A Briefing by Mr. Alireza Jafarzadeh
Iranian Opposition Leader Speaks at Middle East Forum
Event Report
by Joseph Puder
The Bulletin
September 19, 2007
Alireza Jafarzadeh, president of Washington-based Strategic
Policy Consulting and spokesperson for the National Council
of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), was the guest of the Middle
East Forum at Philadelphia's Cozen O'Connor law offices last
Wednesday over lunch. Bob Guzzardi, chairman of the Middle
East Forum, introduced Jafarzadeh, who used his visit with
the Middle East Forum to promote his new book, The Iran
Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis.
The best policy option for the U.S., according to
Jafarzadeh, is to support the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK),
currently listed by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist
organization. Jafarzadeh said that all other options -
including an economic boycott of Iran, support for minority
groups within Iran and military action - are only ancillary
to supporting MEK.
Bombing Iran, Jafarzadeh claimed, will not help and, at
best, would delay the nuclear program. In focusing on Iraq,
Jafarzadeh said, "Nouri al-Maliki, the current prime
minister, must be removed and Shiite militias disarmed." He
accused Maliki of being an agent of Iran and emphasized
Iran's decisive voice in the Maliki government. He asserted
that "ministerial appointments in the Maliki government get
approval from Tehran."
America's and the free world's best hopes for Iran, he said,
are with the younger generation and women. Being born into a
climate of oppression, the young people - and women in
particular - are rebelling and demanding freedom.
Jafarzadeh stressed the futility of any talks held between
U.S. officials and their Iranian counterparts. "Talks with
the Iranian officials exposes the U.S. weakness and
encourages Iranian aggression," Jafarzadeh asserted.
Jafarzadeh, an active Iranian dissident, became more widely
recognized in 2002 when he revealed the existence of
clandestine nuclear facilities in Iran. When he originally
sounded the alarm, Jafarzadeh noted, "it did not seem real
to many people at the time. Now people are realizing how
serious the situation is."
Jafarzadeh said that Iran is waging a proxy war against the
U.S. forces in Iraq and that Gen. David Petraeus and U.S.
Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, admitted as much in their
testimony before Congress. Jafarzadeh asked rhetorically why
it took so long.
Jafarzadeh charged that the Iranian regime dominated
everything in Iraq and that it has delivered improvised
explosive devise (IED) bombs to Iraqis in order to kill
Americans.
These bombs, according to Jafarzadeh, are built in the
suburbs of Tehran and shipped to Iraq. He added that Iran is
training the militias and providing them arms and assistance
to the tune of $70 million a month. Moreover, Jafarzadeh
said that Iran has 32,000 agents in Iraq and that key Iraqis
in local and provincial governments take their orders from
Tehran. The same is true, he said, with regard to the
defense ministry and police.
Iran's goal, according to Jafarzadeh, is to establish an
Islamic Shiite state in Iraq. He pointed out that
immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in
2003, three million Iranians crossed the border into Iraq to
visit the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. He quoted a
member of the Iraqi National Assembly, Jamal al-Din (a
Shiite cleric) as openly claiming that "Iran already
controls the Iraqi government."
Iran's extremism, coupled with its possession of a nuclear
bomb, would be "a nightmare scenario" Jafarzadeh emphasized.
The Iranian regime, he added, "believes in global Islamic
rule," and a nuclear bomb would give it the leverage and
"help it to consolidate power."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has pushed for this
nuclear program with the backing of the Supreme Leader and
the Revolutionary Guards. The nuclear program itself is
under the control of the Revolutionary Guards, who are loyal
to Ahmadinejad. The Revolutionary Guards, Jafarzadeh said,
have carried out the R&D on the nuclear weapons.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has not
interviewed the Revolutionary Guards on the nuclear weapons
situation, Jafarzadeh asserted, adding that the IAEA failed
to inspect a number of underground facilities that the
Iranian opposition revealed to them. Jafarzadeh claimed that
the Iranian nuclear program has not been slowed down and
that progress is being made with plutonium in Nantaz.
Addressing actions the U.S. must take, Jafarzadeh said that
Washington must demand that the Iraqi government "purge the
Iranian elements." Iran, Jafarzadeh said, created such
entities as the Badr Brigades and other such militias, which
should be disbanded and disarmed. "The U.S.," Jafarzadeh
said, "needs to empower the more moderate voices in Iraq,
since they are a majority."
Jafarzadeh pointed out that Iranian opposition, which has
been fighting the ayatollahs in Tehran and Qum for more than
27 years, has pressured the Sunni groups to stop fighting
Americans and Iraqis.
"Sitting with Iranian government officials sends the wrong
message to moderates in Iran and weakens their voice,"
Jafarzadeh said. "The U.S. must be firm with Iran's agents
in Iraq and with Iran itself, and the MEK opposition group
should be supported by the U.S. instead of it being on the
terrorist list of the State Department. Saddam Hussein had
supported the MEK for over 20 years and used them during the
Iran-Iraq war. The group is heavily armed (it took tanks and
artillery left in Saddam's arsenal) and is strong enough to
confront Iranian troops.
"Iran is vulnerable internally," Jafarzadeh claimed, citing
the more than 5,000 anti-government demonstrations in Iran
last year. Demonstrators burned Ahmadinejad's photo right in
front of him, in spite of the mass executions faced by
opposition members since 1988.
In ending his 30-minute presentation, Jafarzadeh said,
"There is no need to invade Iran or use military action, and
the U.S. need not go on with fruitless negotiations with the
Iranians. The people of Iran are ready for change." The U.S.
banned the MEK and labeled it a terrorist organization as a
gesture to Iranian President Muhammad Khatami, who was
perceived in the West as a "moderate." It is high time,
Jafarzadeh said, that the U.S. ends its ban on the MEK and
begins supporting it openly.
