OPINION:
Brian Binley is correct that an excellent first step in restarting our policy toward Iran would be removing the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI) from the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations (“Rebooting our Iran policy for 2011,” Commentary, Monday). This should be a first step, one coupled with further pressure on refined-petroleum suppliers and more direct broadcasts to pro-democracy protesters. Perhaps the most pressure could be brought by quietly arming the PMOI with weapons of Iranian origin.
Once we have delisted the PMOI, we should follow up with a diplomatic cable or message through a trusted intermediary such as Turkey, that, in the future, any time coalition forces in either Iraq or Afghanistan capture improvised explosive devices or other weapons that were designed, built in or passed through Iran, those weapons would be turned over to the PMOI. Nothing will provide greater support to the Iranian pro-democracy forces than the example of two functioning democracies as neighbors where the supposed “Great Satan” once tread.
PETER LOCKE
Ashburn, Va.
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