President Trump Must Not Exploit Iranian Protests To Violate Nuclear Agreement

January 4, 2018

J Street supports the brave Iranian people who have taken to the streets over the past week to seek a better and more equitable future for themselves and their country.

As we watch their protests with hope for their success and fear for their safety, we are deeply concerned that President Trump may use their struggle as a disingenuous pretext to reimpose nuclear sanctions that would violate the Iran nuclear agreement. Such a move could have disastrous consequences for the US and our allies — and for the Iranian people themselves.

By baselessly violating an agreement that has succeeded in blocking Iranian pathways to a nuclear weapon, the president would only empower the terror-supporting hardliners who oppose the pact and help them redirect public ire toward the United States. At a time when the world’s focus should be on the Iranian people’s effort to decide their own future, the administration would be creating a full-fledged crisis that could put our country on the path to a destructive and unnecessary war.

It is alarming to see opponents of the nuclear agreement attempting to co-opt these protests to advance their long-standing goal of terminating the accord. These same voices have often advocated for policies of regime change and military confrontation with Iran that, if carried out, would cost countless Iranian lives and plunge the region into even deeper turmoil. Their agenda is a recipe not for freedom and democratization but for war.

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