US midterm elections are likely to continue bipartisan congressional support for the Iranian people’s desire for freedom from Islamist rule, but some Iranian-American observers say President Joe Biden’s The implications for Iranian policy are unknown.
Majid Sadegpur, policy director for the Iranian-American Communities Organization, told VOA he foresaw bipartisan groups in Congress continuing to support Iran’s seven-week riot. clergyman.
“We see no distinction between Republicans and Democrats here. Bipartisan members of Congress stand on the right side of history. We expect this to be the same in the new Congress.” said Sadegpur, both parties’ US lawmakers this year.
The OIAC, allied with the exiled Iranian dissident Mujahideen Al-Khalq (MEK), heads the French-based Iranian National Resistance Council (NCRI) to seek the “overthrow of the religious dictatorship” in Iran. advocated.
Islamic clerics have led Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Nationwide protests began on September 16 in the wake of the death in police custody of an Iranian woman who was arrested for not covering her hair sufficiently. Rights groups say hundreds have died and thousands have been arrested in the clergy’s brutal crackdown on protests.
In an email to VOA, Ryan Costello, policy director for the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC), said that with the next legislative session set to take office in January, the NIAC community said, It’s a quick condemnation and response from the Biden administration.”
The NIAC supports the Biden administration’s view that a US policy priority should be to support Iranian protesters. Restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities that can be weaponized. Negotiations stalled earlier this year.
The Biden administration last week joined the European Union and Canada in imposing sanctions on additional Iranian officials for crackdowns.
White House spokeswoman Carine Jean-Pierre said: “Until Iran changes its behavior, the United States will continue to impose costs and hold Iran responsible for using violence to suppress protests, civil society and women’s rights. We will continue to hold these officials and entities accountable,” he said. Press conference last Friday.
In an interview with VOA Persian TV Tuesday, Iranian-American commentator Hamid Akbari, an executive at the Chicago-based education foundation and a former professor of business administration at Northeastern Illinois University, said the Republican Party had been elected to the House and Senate. said they believed they would if they won a majority in the poll. Pressure the White House to take a tougher line against the Islamic Republic. “
But Aram Hesami, an Iranian-American political science professor at Montgomery University in Rockville, Maryland, told VOA Persian TV that he doesn’t see the midterm elections having a significant impact on the policies of the Biden administration. rice field.
“U.S. lawmakers in the new Congress will be primarily concerned with curbing inflation spikes and dining table problems,” Hesami said. “Foreign policy will continue to be an area in which the executive branch of the U.S. government has greater influence.”
