The chair of Iran’s parliamentary nuclear committee, Hojjat al-Islam Mojtaba Zolnour, revealed that the Obama administration granted 2,500 Iranians United States citizenship to help negotiate the Iran nuclear deal.
Zolnour, who serves as a member of the Islamic Republic’s national security and foreign affairs committee, also told Iran’s Etemad newspaper in an interview – as cited in Iran’s Fars News agency – that family members of Iranian government officials were included in the 2,500 U.S. citizenships handed over by former President Barack Obama and his former Secretary of State John Kerry.
Obama allowed Iranian gov’t to infiltrate the U.S.?
It was further alleged that the thousands of citizenships granted to Iran during the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in July 2015 were handed over as a favor to senior Iranian officials connected to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, with numerous Iranian officials vying to ensure their children could take advantage of the covert deal.
“When Obama – during the negotiations about the JCPOA – decided to do a favor to these men, he granted citizenship to 2,500 Iranians and some officials started a competition over whose children could be part of these 2,500 Iranians,” Zolnour asserted, according to Fox News. “If today, these Iranians get deported from America, it will become clear who is complicit and sells the national interest like he is selling candies to America.”
As a result, many with direct ties to the Iranian government currently reside in the U.S.
“Though Zolnour did not mention anyone by name during the interview, several children of current and former Iranian officials live in the United States, including Ali Fereydoun, whose father, Hossein Fereydoun, is the brother of and special aide to President Rouhani, and Fatemeh Ardeshir Larijani, whose father, Ali Larijani, is speaker of parliament.” Fox News’ Chris Irvine informed. “There is no suggestion [any] of these people received citizenship in the wake of the Iranian nuclear deal, [and] it’s also unclear if Zolnour meant citizenship or a green card.”
Bad deal getting worse …
In May, President Donald Trump made the announcement that the U.S. will be withdrawing from the failed Iran nuclear deal.
“President Donald Trump has since pulled out of the carefully negotiated deal, which he branded the ‘worst deal ever,’” the Daily Mail noted. “The 2015 deal saw the U.S., the European Union, Russia and China agree to lift sanctions imposed on Iran’s nuclear program, and in return, Iran agreed to curb its program, limiting it to peaceful applications and allow comprehensive inspections by an independent agency, [but] there was never any mention of U.S. citizenship being offered as a sweetener in the deal.”
Zolnour, a conservative Muslim who is in the inner circle of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that anywhere from 30 to 60 Iranian youth – whose parents serve with the Iranian government – currently living while studying in the U.S.
“It should be stated exactly which children of which authorities live in the United States and have received citizenship or residency,” Zolnour insisted in his interview, according to Fox News. “The children not included in the 30 to 60 are working in the U.S.] against our [Iran’s] national interests.”
During the last years of the Obama administration, tens of thousands of Iranians entered the U.S., and an overwhelming majority of them are still in America.
“In 2015, 13,114 people born in Iran were issued green cards, while 13,298 were issued one in 2016, according to figures from the Department for Homeland Security,” Irvine recounted. “In 2015, 10,344 Iranians became naturalized, with a further 9,507 in 2016.”
The U.S. State Department refused to comment on the Iranian cleric’s allegations regarding the thousands of Iranian citizenships granted to Iran as part of the notorious deal.
“We’re not going to comment on every statement by an Iranian official,” a State Department spokesperson told Fox News, while former Obama State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf expressed skepticism about Zolnour’s claim.
More problems with Obama’s Iran deal
Zolnour’s allegations work to add fuel to the fire of the ongoing debate in Washington over Obama’s failed dealings with Iran – with much evidence being stacked up against the 44th president that he was too easy on the militant Islamic nation and made far too many concessions to stay on friendly terms.
“The cleric’s claim could, in the U.S., fuel Republican complaints about the concessions made by the Obama administration during that period – including not just sanctions relief, but the $1.7 billion payment supposedly tied to a legal settlement that coincided with the 2016 release of American prisoners,” Irvine pointed out.
Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) Research Fellow Saeed Ghasseminejad – whose research institute is based in Washington, D.C. – says a good proportion of Iranians are appalled that people from their country have stooped to set foot in America, which the regime often refers to as the “Great Satan.”
He also warned that the dozens of children of Iranian officials living in the U.S. could ignite anger and protest against top government officials working in Iran’s capital of Tehran.
“Many ordinary Iranians are surprised and feel betrayed that children of the regime officials live and work in the U.S.,” Ghasseminejad told Fox News. “The regime officials chant ‘death to America,’ but send their children to the U.S., away from the hell they have created in Iran over the past four decades.”
He also pointed out that a number of Iranians have been demanding that those living in the U.S. be deported back to Iran.
“Iranians don’t understand why the U.S. government allows the offspring of the regime officials to live in the U.S., while the U.S. has introduced a travel ban for ordinary Iranian citizens, and many Americans are imprisoned in Iran,” Ghasseminejad added. “That is why many Iranians on social media have been urging the U.S. government to deport the children of the regime officials.”
More problems for Iran
The U.S. Supreme Court added to Iran’s troubles of late after upholding Trump’s travel ban that included Iran among the seven countries denied entry into the America due to their status of being hotbeds for Islamic terrorism, but international travel is just one of the many dilemmas the Islamic Republic is currently facing.
“The country has been beset by a series of economic protests in recent days, as the country’s currency, the rial, crashes,” Irvine noted. “Since the U.S. withdrew from the Iranian nuclear deal on May 8, the value of the rial has plunged to 90,000 against the dollar – double the government rate of 42,000 rials to the dollar. The protests have hit Iranian commercial areas, including the historic Grand Bazaar in Tehran, the home of conservative merchants who backed the 1979 Islamic Revolution and overthrow of the Shah.”
And with the Iran nuke deal going under, Iran is blaming the U.S. for its financial woes.
“Rouhani has warned the country that it faces an ‘economic war’ with the U.S., but analysts have warned that hard-liners are likely behind the protests seeking to challenge the more moderate president,” Irvine explained. “Rouhani is under pressure since the nuclear deal agreed with the Obama administration was torn up by Trump, [and] as a result, international firms and oil companies have backed away from billion-dollar deals with the Islamic Republic.”
More problems for Obama to deal with
Just one month after Trump announced that the U.S. was breaking out of the Iran nuke deal – allegations were waged that the Obama administration gave Iran access to America’s financial system.
“The report comes after the Senate revealed in June the Obama White House secretly gave the Iranian regime access to the U.S. financial system – a violation of sanctions,” Townhall informed.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) revealed more deception by Obama and his State Department, which allegedly carried out covert deals to work out the Iran nuclear deal and score points with the radical left, who have traditionally pushed for a politically correct foreign policy of appeasement to keep the peace with America’s militant Islamic enemies.
“The Obama administration during the negotiation of the Iran deal misled the American people,” Portman argued in a statement, according to Townhall. “I think they did so because they were desperate to get a deal.”
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