Stop Iran's Mullahs and Support the Iranian People

The illegitimate government of the Islamic Republic of Iran is a Quisling entity that has betrayed its people, its traditions, its glorious pre-Islamic achievements, and is working against Iran's national interest. Iran, under the stranglehold and machinations of the Mullahs, has been transformed, in less than three decades, into a perpetrator of evil and of all that is abhorrent to humanity.

The life that God gives, no man should extinguish. The illegitimate mullahs presently ruling Iran have blatantly violated this sacred covenant while shooting at a large number of peaceful demonstrators demanding nothing more than their God-given rights to individual liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The mullahs and their mercenaries waste precious human life to maintain themselves in power while terrorizing the population.

Our hearts bleed watching the brutally of government agents, their treatment of children, assaulting them in their dormitories at night while they sleep or invading the sanctuary of their homes to physically abuse and arrest them. Regrettably, the ruling regime sees these actions as part of their sacred duty. They see any defiance of the supreme leader as defiance of Allah. They call the demonstrators who just want their voices to be heard "terrorists," "wretched", "thugs" and "agents of foreign governments." If they do not shoot people outright, they savagely rape them in prisons and attack their own citizens with knives, chains, batons and any other crude weapons they can get their hands on.

The recent ransack of the British Embassy compound in Tehran by the Islamic Republic paramilitary force, the Basij, is reminiscent of the 1979 seizure and takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, when Islamists held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. The attack came after the U.K. last week announced it would join the U.S. and Canada in coordinated sanctions against the Islamic Republic banks in a bid to cut off financing of its nuclear program. This is yet further poignant evidence that the Islamic Republic of Iran cannot be reformed. Regime change is the only viable option.

We call upon the free governments of the world, as well as all other businesses, organizations and individuals to enlist in a non-violent campaign to end the reign of terror of a belligerent clerical regime. Governments should enact immediately the following:

1. Declare unequivocally the commitment to respect the territorial integrity of Iran, as well as the rights of the Iranian people to decide, through the democratic process, all matters pertaining to their lives and country.
2. Initiate, without delay or equivocation, a comprehensive program of assistance to all democratic Iranian opposition groups, both within as well as outside of Iran, in their struggle to accomplish the regime change themselves.
3. Proclaim far and wide that the cardinal reason for taking these measures against the Mullahs' reign of terror is to prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons, the threat they pose to the region as well as to the world, and the stimulus they provide for other Middle Eastern nations to develop their own nuclear arsenal.
4. Enforce the U.N. sanctions by inspecting every vessel headed for Iranian ports to make sure they are not ferrying prohibited material. Other than vessels known to be carrying food and medicine, each ship should be subjected to a rigorous and thorough inspection.
5. Establish an Iran Assistance Fund, from Iran's frozen assets as well as contributions from peace-loving individuals and organizations, to assist Iranian families during the hardship that the sanctions may create.
6. Persuade Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and other Persian Gulf oil producers to significantly increase their output and drastically cut the price. It is what they must do to help forestall the emergence of a nuclear clerical Iran bent on ruling the region.
7. Cease or freeze all assets of the past and present officials of the IRI abroad on the legal ground that they are stolen funds from the Iranian nation and make their release conditional on the review of impartial international tribunals. On the top of this list must be any and all assets that the officers of the Revolutionary Guards and their families have tucked away abroad.
8. Shut down, or severely restrict the operation of the Mullahs' businesses in Dubai and other Persian Gulf states.
9. Completely shut down Iranian missions. Severely restrict Iranian officials and nuclear scientists from foreign travel. Shut down your embassies in Iran and recall your ambassadors from Iran.
10. Deny the Iranian airlines operation and encourage non-Iranian airlines to cease serving the country. Provide for flights that serve emergency medical and other health-related needs of the Iranians.
11. File legal charges against the leaders of the Islamic Republic's wanton violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; for their crimes against humanity, genocidal actions against religious and political groups; for support of international terrorism; for demolition of religious sites and cemeteries; for rape, torture, and summary execution of prisoners of conscience; for forgery of documents, for acts of blackmail and fraud, and much more.
12. Declare and treat the clerical regime as illegitimate.
13. Stop Iran's import of refined petroleum products.
14. Shut down the Islamic Republic's web sites and block their television and radio broadcasts such as Press TV that will cut down regime's most influential global propaganda machines in the English language and their influence in Muslim communities in Europe.
15. Identify the agents of the Islamic Republic and prosecute them as promoters of international terrorism.
16. Investigate individuals and organizations such as National Iranian-American Council (NIAC) in Washington that lobby for the Islamic Republic of Iran.
17. Obtain the collaboration of international banks and other monetary institutions in denying letters of credit to Iranian government agencies and companies. This action greatly impedes the working of the government and particularly its program of acquiring weapons and weapons material.
18. Pressure businesses to stop dealing with Iran.
19. Pressure governments to stop doing business with Iran. Warn countries such as China and Russia against circumventing the U.N. resolution and engaging in commercial adventurism.

While the sanctions will clearly hurt the Iranian people, a temporary hurt of this nature is a price that people are willing to pay to get rid of scourge of the IRI. These Mullahs are determined to get their bloody hands on the atomic bomb and further strengthen their position in promoting violence and mayhem in the Middle East and beyond. In the process, we the Iranian people will end up the victims.　President Obama must step up the pressure on the IRI. Once the IRI falls, the lynchpin of Islamism will be destroyed. America, Israel, and the rest of the world will be hugely safer without the end-of-the-worlder Mullahs being in command with nuclear weapons at their disposal.

We are gravely concerned that the confrontational course of the illegitimate clerical regime of Iran will ultimately ignite the flame of war. We urge the leaders as well as people of the world to join in the non-violent campaign of dislodging the mullahs and helping Iranians to establish a secular democracy. The Iran problem is both serious and urgent. It is the world's problem. A warning to world governments and others: Timing is of the essence. You need to act now. Appeasement and apathy of this criminal regime with nuclear weapons will have far reaching and disastrous consequences.

Dr. Arash Irandoost is the founder of Pro Democracy Movement of Iran (PDMI), which focuses on human rights and pro-democracy initiatives.  Amil Imani is the author of Obama Meets Ahmadinejad and Operation Persian Gulf.