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SIGNATORIES

Jamal Abdi
President, NIAC & NIAC Action

Ervand Abrahamian
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Iranian and Middle Eastern history and politics, City University of New York 

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam
Professor in Global Thought and Comparative Philosophies at SOAS, University of London and Fellow of Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge 

Andrew Albertson
Executive Director of Foreign Policy for America

Pouya Alimagham
Lecturer of Modern Middle Eastern History, MIT

Sanam Naraghi Anderlini
Founder/CEO International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN), Adjunct Prof, SIPA, Columbia University

Reza Aslan
Author and Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at University of California, Riverside

Kathryn Babayan
Associate Professor of Iranian History & Culture, University of Michigan 

Narges Bajoghli
Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

Asef Bayat
Director of Graduate Studies and Professor of Sociology, University of Illinois

Peter Beinart
Contributing Editor at the Atlantic and professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York

Juan Cole
Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan

Hamid Dabashi
Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, Columbia University

Touraj Daryaee
Maseeh Chair in Persian Studies & Culture and Director of the Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies & Culture, University of California, Irvine

David Emami
City Councilor, Happy Valley, Oregon

Hadi Esfahani
Representative, Florida State House, District 47

Dina Esfandiary
Fellow, International Security Program, Belfer Center for Science and Security Studies, Harvard University and Fellow, The Century Foundation

The Honorable Anna Eskamani
Fellow, International Security Program, Belfer Center for Science and Security Studies, Harvard University and Fellow, The Century Foundation

Farshad Farahat
Actor

Farideh Farhi
Affiliate Graduate Faculty of Political Science, University of Hawai’i at Manoa

Mateo M. Farzaneh
Associate Professor of History and Principal of The Mossadegh Initiative, Institutional Advancement, Northeastern Illinois University

Behrooz Ghamari Tabrizi
Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University

Shireen Ghorbani
Public Servant

Amirali Handjani
Senior Fellow Atlantic Council, Truman National Security Project Fellow

Kevan Harris
Assistant Professor of Sociology studying development and social change in the global South, UCLA

Nader Hashemi
Director of the Center for Middle East Studies, University of Denver

Homa Hoodfar
Professor of Anthropology, Emerita, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Maryam Jamshidi
Acting Assistant Professor of Lawyering, NYU Law and Founder of Muftah.org

Maz Jobrani
Iranian-American Actor and Comedian

Ali Kadivar
Assistant Professor of Sociology and International Studies, Boston College

Mohsen Kadivar
Research Professor of Islamic Studies, Duke University

Dr. Persis Karim
Neda Nobari Chair, Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies, San Francisco State University

Arang Keshavarzian
Associate Professor of Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies, New York University

John Limbert
retired Foreign Service Officer, former deputy assistant secretary of state for Iranian affairs

Neda Maghbouleh
Author and Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Toronto

Paul Kawika Martin
Senior Director, Policy and Political Affairs, Peace Action

Pardis Mahdavi
Professor and Acting Dean, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver

Ali-Akbar Mahdi
Lecturer, Dept. of Sociology, California State University (Northridge)

Nicholas Miller
Assistant Professor of Government, Dartmouth College

Ali Mirsepassi
Albert Gallatin Research Excellence Professor, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and Director, Iranian Studies Initiative, ISI-NYU, New York University

Bitta Mostofi
Public Servant, City of New York (in personal capacity)

Mitra Jalali Nelson
St. Paul Minnesota Council member, Ward 4

Golnar Nikpour
Assistant Professor of History, Dartmouth College

Neda Nobari
Iranian-American Humanitarian & Philanthropist, Founder, Neda Nobari Foundation (NNF)

Rouzbeh Parsi
Visiting Research Scholar, Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, Princeton University, Head of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs – Stockholm, and Senior lecturer at Lund University

Trita Parsi
Author, 2010 recipient of the Grawemeyer Award and Adjunct Associate Professor, Georgetown University

Paul Pillar
Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University and Nonresident Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution

Danny Postel
Assistant Director, Middle East and North African Studies Program, Northwestern University

Assal Rad
Policy Analyst, NIAC

Gobi Rahimi
Producer/director

Nasrin Rahimieh
Howard Baskerville Professor of Humanities Chair, Department of Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine

Jon Rainwater
Executive Director of Peace Action

Kamran Rastegar
Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature, Tufts University

Mahsa Rouhi
Research Fellow, International Institute for Strategic Studies

Sahar Sadeghi
Assistant Professor of Sociology, Muhlenberg College

Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi
British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oxford

Muhammad Sahimi
NIOC Chair in Petroleum Engineering and Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, USC

Alex Shams
Founder, Ajam Media Collective

Djavad Salehi-Isfahani
Professor of Economics, Virginia Tech

Azadeh Shahshahani
Past President, National Lawyers Guild; Legal & Advocacy Director, Project South

Shahrooz Shekaraubi
Founder, Aftab Committee

Nahid Siamdoust
Author and Ehsan Yarshater Fellow in Iranian Studies, Yale University

Sussan Tahmasebi
Executive Director of FEMENA

Yasmine Taeb
Attorney, Democratic National Committeewoman and candidate for the Virginia State Senate

Sina Toossi
Research Associate, National Iranian American Council 

Stephen Walt
Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Babak Yousefzadeh
Attorney, National President Emeritus of the Iranian American Bar Association

+ 5,119 more names and counting!

As members and friends of the Iranian-American community, we are deeply concerned that the Trump administration may be headed towards starting a devastating war with Iran. Recent dangerous escalations—including Iraq war architect and current National Security Advisor John Bolton's threat to use "unrelenting force" against Iran—should sound the alarm for all those who remember the propaganda campaign that preceded the 2003 invasion of Iraq. With U.S.-Iran tensions moving to the precipice, lawmakers, the media, and the public must avoid a repeat of the mistakes that led to the catastrophic Iraq War and hold the administration to account for its disastrous Iran policy.

Bolton has long sought to goad the U.S. and Iran into a war and has no qualms about distorting intelligence to advance his hawkish agenda. He has also been closely allied with the cultish Mujahedin-e Khalq, which he has hailed as a political alternative for the Iranian people. Under Bolton’s watch, the Trump administration is repeating the George W. Bush playbook for war with Iraq— inaccurately tying Iran to al-Qaeda, baselessly stating that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, and politicizing intelligence assessments on Iran. These warning signs for a war with Iran cannot be overstated. They must be viewed as a call to action by all Americans who want to avert a war that would be devastating for U.S. interests and global peace and security. 

The biggest victims of the Trump White House's so-called "maximum pressure" campaign have been the Iranian people, who are being crushed in a vice of draconian sanctions and state repression. Their circumstances are now set to worsen as sanctions intensify and hardliners in Iran have been vindicated and empowered. 

If the march to war is not halted, the Iranian people’s suffering will only further increase and the U.S. will find itself bogged down in another costly war of choice. Congress must block Trump’s path to war and push to return the U.S. to compliance with the nuclear deal and the negotiating table without delay.