Iranian Diaspora Worries About War, Sanctions and Human Rights
Many Iranians living in the US oppose broad economic sanctions against Iran, writes Roxana Saberi. Iranian Americans hope that the dispute over Iran's nuclear program won’t obscure Tehran’s human rights violations and the plight of ordinary Iranians.
As President Obama prepares to start his second term in office, many diaspora Iranians are hoping that US efforts to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program won’t lead to disregard of Tehran’s human rights violations and the plight of ordinary Iranians suffering from sanctions.
Estimates of the number of Iranians living abroad range from two and a half to three million, with the largest population, around one million, in the United States.
Opposition to broad economic sanctions is widespread among Iranian Americans, said Trita Parsi, the president of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC).
“You’re seeing the impact of sanctions becoming much more clear cut,” Parsi said. “What people are hearing from family members in Iran is quite devastating, so I’m not surprised it’s taking a bigger space in their consciousness than before.”
