Excerpt Below:
It’s well past time to shutter the Iranian Interests Section. The U.S. government shouldn’t be facilitating U.S. travel to Iran in the first place; the risk of Americans being held hostage and the costs for their release are both exorbitantly high.
Even the Biden administration has repeatedly messaged its warnings to Americans against travel to Iran, though the State Department still directs visa-seekers to the Iranian Interests Section.
We shouldn’t permit a single employee of the Iranian regime to work in Washington, D.C. either — especially considering the regime’s ongoing efforts to assassinate several senior former U.S. officials, including Mike Pompeo and John Bolton. These employees are also routinely caught filming anti-regime protests, endangering the safety of countless Americans and their relatives back inside Iran.
Gabriel Noronha (@GLNoronha on X) is the executive director of Polaris National Security and a fellow with the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA). He previously served as the special advisor for Iran at the State Department under Secretary Pompeo.
Read the full op-ed in The Hill.