Over 700 Iranian individuals and entities have been sanctioned in an attempt by the US to hamper the economy and force the regime to come back to the negotiating table. They will also target US and foreign companies who do business with them.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: “Our ultimate aim is to compel Iran to permanently abandon its well-documented outlaw activities and behave like a normal country.”
Of course, the National Iranian American Council claimed that the sanctions would harm the Iranian people and sow “the seeds for a disastrous war”.

NIAC President Jamal Abdi’s comments about this ignore that the mullahs have destroyed Iran’s economy, plunging much of the population into poverty and causing widespread protests, and that the mullahs are hellbent on war and destruction in the Middle East.

Abdi has also ignored the fact that the US is trying to limit the disruption to the Iranian people, by offering temporary sanctions waivers to eight countries and providing exemptions for food, medicine, and other humanitarian goods.

But the simple truth is that the NIAC don’t have any other recourse, other than to predict war and claim that the Iranian people will be hurt. How else could they get people of their side?

Michael Tomlinson wrote: “The NIAC has also been silent on more recent attempts by the Iranian regime to carry out terrorist attacks and assassinations of Iranian dissidents in Europe as seen in a foiled bombing attempt outside of Paris over the summer and murder plan disrupted by Denmark.”

Game of Thrones
Over the weekend, Donald Trump trolled the Iranian regime with a Game of Thrones meme, reading “Sanctions Are Coming”, and the Iran lobby’s response was predictable. They criticised Trump, his cabinet, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and, most of all, the tweet.

Why? Probably because they have no legitimate complaint about the sanctions.
The NIAC then tried its hand at trolling; referring to Trump as a “White Walker”, while General Qasem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s infamous Quds Forces, tweeted his own GoT reference, noting that he would “Stand Against [Trump]”.

Of course, NIAC founder Trita Parsi was there to predict an actual war from a flame war, tweeting that these tweets show that we are “moving towards a military confrontation”. Does he think that war is declared via memes?

Maybe the Iran lobby and the Regime should binge-watch GoT and leave politics to the adults.