Kimia Sariani

This is an Open Letter to Mr. Donald Trump in response to his recent “All-In” interview.

Dear Mr. Trump:

“Obama, Obama, either you’re with us or with them!”

This was the slogan the Iranian people cried out in the summer of 2009, as they pleaded with the newly elected president to help them. Instead, “when millions of Iranians took to the streets in June of 2009, when they demanded freedom from a cruel regime that threatens the world, when they cried out, ‘Are you with us, or are you with them?’ – the American president was silent,” Mitt Romney said. 

In his silence and frail words of condemnation, President Barack Obama decided to not only to side with the Ayatollah – He would set in motion a tragedy that would plague the Middle East to the very moment I write this to you. His ignorance led him to believe he could turn the ayatollah from a foe to a friend, a mistake he now admits to. 

His steadfastness on the Iran nuclear Deal (or the JCPOA) and planes of cash would unleash your old foe, Qassem Soleimani, to begin streamlining funding, weapons and training to their proxy groups Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the tens of other groups wreaking havoc on the Middle East and Africa. As well as their influence campaigns in Europe, Canada, the United Kingdom and even in America. 

President Biden has now made the same mistake by choosing the Ayatollah over the Iranian people during the 2022 Mahsa Amini uprising. Instead of supporting the Iranian people, he has refused to enforce sanctions, granted sanctions waivers, has caved to the regime’s hostage diplomacy by releasing $6bn, and signaled a revival of the nuclear deal. These are all moves that the Iranian people vehemently oppose, inside and outside of Iran. While Iranians place some of the blame on groups like the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) that President Biden has chosen to listen to and allowed to infiltrate Washington, including former Iran Envoy Robert Malley who is currently under investigation, the fault lies with the President as he is actively choosing to ignore the Iranian people, just as Barack Obama did. We hope you do not make the same mistake.

The diaspora Iranian community, in line with Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi’s policy of Maximum Pressure/Maximum Support, has lobbied for a fundamental change in America’s Iran policy. Namely, they were successful in pushing the Mahsa Act, which was signed into law along with 5 other important Iran bills in April. They have also pushed for an end to any cooperation between Washington and the clandestine groups mentioned, as well as an end to any cooperation with the highly unpopular Jihadi-Marxist terrorist group, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) and its front organizations, the National Council of Resistance in Iran and the Organization of Iranian American Communities. Instead, Washington should get acquainted with the National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI) and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).

The Iranian people are clear, the only solution to the plague of the middle east is to remove it and we are giving you a roadmap to achieve success. Mr. Trump, your ally in Iran is the Iranian people, not the Ayatollah and certainly not MEK. I cannot stress enough that neither want to be friends with you and the Iranian people do not want, nor deserve to be sacrificial lambs of this project any longer. 

Allow me to tell you about one of those sacrificial lambs: 

When most people think of October 7, they remember the atrocious terrorist attack on Israel perpetuated by Hamas. For my family, October 7 reminds us of the life stolen from our world on October 7, 2022. 

“We won’t stop until they are gone, or we are.”

Those were the last words anyone heard from my cousin. The damp October night in Mashhad must have felt like a cloak of secrecy and defiance, wrapping around her as she made her way through the city to the meeting spot. In her last videos, the night was intimate, almost suffocating, as if the city itself were holding its breath. 

Others began to gather, young faces like hers, eyes bright with a mix of fear and determination. The oppressive sky seemed to mirror the weight on their shoulders. As they stood together, they were more than shadows, more than whispers, more than nameless faces. They were the heartbeat of Mashhad, ready to rise and reclaim their voices, their future.

“Death to the Dictator!”

She said as they chanted in the street around the fire calling for the fall of Ali Khamenei and his brutal regime. Everyone was so caught up in the moment that they did not notice some of their compatriots were disappearing from the crowd as plain clothes officers began kidnapping people. We would never hear from nor see my cousin again. As we draw closer to the one year anniversary of the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack and the two year anniversary of my cousin’s disappearance, we still have not received her body back for proper burial. She was the 3rd family member the regime has stolen from my family. My grandfather was killed in the 90s for teaching and initiating Iranians into Zoroastrianism. Another cousin of mine had a “heart attack” while detained by regime forces in the 2000s. He was 23 years-old. 

If you were to ask any Iranian if they have a similar story regarding family or someone they know, the answer will be yes. If you were to ask a Syrian, an Israeli, or anyone who lives in an area where the regime has a proxy, they will say yes. 

Which brings me to the million dollar question: What do Iranians want? Freedom. 

Mr. Trump, in your recent interview, you stated that you are looking to strike a deal with the regime. My cousin did not give her life for Biden, or you, to save the very people who took her from this world. Mohsen Shekari’s mother didn’t cry out for the regime to stay in power. Majidreza Rahnavard did not suffer his arm being broken and he did not hang from a crane as regime thugs jeered for the regime to stay in power. Kian Pirfalak’s mother did not keep her 9 year-old son on ice to protect his body from the regime for that same regime to stay in power. Nika Shakarami did not suffer in the back of a van just for the regime to stay in power. Fatemeh Sepehri did not willingly damn herself to an additional prison sentence for declaring the Iranian people’s support of Israel from her hospital bed just for the regime to stay in power. The Iranian people are relying on you to support them, not work against them as former presidents have.  

The Iranian people want an end to the Islamic Republic occupying their country. They want a secular democracy, and to become an ally with their neighbors along with the west once again, as they were under Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. They no longer want their wealth stolen and squandered on the regime’s terror throughout the world as they starve or rot in the regime’s jails if they are not shot dead in the streets first. 

Most importantly, they want Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi to lead them there.

Mr. Trump, I know you are a man who doesn’t take the stance of “interfering”. However, interference is keeping the regime alive as Iranians call for its death. Interference is being the lifeline for the regime Iranians are giving their lives to end. 

With that, I leave you with the words of President Raegan, President Nixon and this:

“Trump, Trump, either you’re with us or with them!”

A chant you will likely hear soon.