This article originally appeared onIran So Far Awayand was republished with permission.
Since 2017, Iranians have widely discussed reports that the Obama administration granted a number of U.S. Green Cards (variously reported as 2,500 or 2,800) to Khomeiniist regime leaders as part of a secret codicil to the 2015 nuclear deal, the JCPOA.
This allegation was first published on February 14thof that year byAmad News, an outlet founded by dissident Ruhollah Zam, who was later lured into a trap by IRGC intelligence, forcibly taken to Iran, summarily tried, and thenexecutedin 2020. At the time, the story did not gain traction in the West, though it was covered by prominent outlets such asAl Arabiya.
The allegation received wider coverage in 2018 when Hojjatoleslam Mojtaba Zolnour, an opponent of then-president Hassan Rouhani, raised the matter in an interview with the Iranian newspaper Etemad. Zolnour added that 30 to 40 children of top Khomeinist officials were then studying in the United States, while many others were “wasting Iranian public assets” to live “extravagant lives” there.
His remarks were later echoed byFox Newsand appeared to be reinforced by President Donald Trump. On July 3, 2018, Trumptweeted: “Just out that the Obama Administration granted citizenship, during the terrible Iran Deal negotiation, to 2,500 Iranians – including to government officials. How big (and bad) is that?”
Iranians of all political persuasions also continued to appeal to the Trump Administration for confirmation of the Green Card story and, if applicable, disclosure of the recipients.
For example, on August 1, 2018, former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejadasked: “Mr. Donald Trump; release the list of relatives of Iranian Government officials that (sic) have Green Cards and bank accounts in the United States; if you have such a list.”
Representatives of both the former Obama Administration and then–foreign minister Mohammad Javid Zarif quickly denied Trump’s claim, while liberal press outlets in the U.S. largely dismissed it as slander unworthy of further comment.
Yet within Iran, Rouhani’s rivals seized on the issue to discredit him and his advisers, and the Islamic regime’s parliament (Majles) opened investigations to identify possible Green Card recipients.
In 2019, Javad Karimi Qoddousi, a member of the Majles’s national security committee, published on hiswebsitea list of 71 influential regime figures whom he claimed had documented foreign permanent residency for themselves or family members.
Source: The Gateway Pundit
