Washington, DC – The National Iranian American Council issued the following reaction to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s comments that Israel has “freedom of action” to respond to Iran’s nuclear program, implying a green light for military strikes:

“The Biden administration should not be in the business of recognizing ‘freedom of action’ for a foreign state with its own nuclear weapons program to launch an illegal preventive war. With Benjamin Netanyahu dead set on undermining the United States’ diplomatic goals and yet now gifted this dangerous concession, the Biden Administration is letting Bibi have his cake and eat it too, and will own the results.

“There is no military solution to the Iranian nuclear issue short of all outour ground invasion and occupation. Military strikes on Iran would spark a disastrous regional conflagration that would inevitably draw the U.S. in and could very well surpass the devastation wrought by the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It would devastate the organic movement for rights and democracy being led by the Iranian people, further entrenching the brutal authoritarians in the Islamic Republic.

“If the Biden administration is serious about preventing an Iranian nuclear weapon, standing in solidarity with ordinary Iranians, and avoiding a disastrous war then a course correction away from the Trump administration’s failed policy that has become Biden’s de facto policy is long past due.”

###

The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) is dedicated to educating and engaging the Iranian-American community to advance peace and diplomacy, secure equitable immigration policies, and protect the civil rights of all Americans.