Obama did not give citizenship to 2,500 Iranians

By Salvador Rizzo | Washington Post

"Just that the Obama administration granted citizenship, during the terrible negotiation of Iran, to 2,500 Iranians – including government officials."

– President Donald Trump, in a tweet, July 3, 2018

This tweet gives a punch: Trump suggests that the administration of President Barack Obama has softened the Iranian nuclear deal by granting US citizenship to 2,500 Iranians , including government officials.

Trump has long mocked the Joint Global Action Plan (JCPOA) .But it's a new line of criticism, nearly two months after Trump was announced that the United States was withdrawing from the agreement.

The 2015 agreement, negotiated by the Obama administration and other world powers, limits the capacity of the United States. Iran to pursue the nuclear weapon In exchange, Iran has obtained a large N / A international sanctions. For the moment, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia remain parties to the nuclear agreement with Iran.

No part of the JCPOA grants US citizenship or legal resident status to Iranians. So where does Trump get this explosive information, and does it hold?

The Facts

Trump's claim seems to come from Mojtaba Zonnour (also spelled Zolnour), a radical cleric and a member of Iran. The parliament that criticized the JCPOA and President Hbadan Rouhani for concluding the agreement.

In June, Zonnour gave an interview to the Iranian newspaper Etemad, and his comments were later reported by Fars, a semi-official news agency known for its links with Iran. "Zolnour announced: Obama gave citizenship to 2,500 Iranians / Some officials had competed for the citizenship of their children," according to Fars.

Zonnour claimed that "the Obama administration granted citizenship to 2,500 Iranians, including family members of government officials, while negotiating the Iranian nuclear agreement" and "claimed that this was done in favor of senior Iranian officials linked to President Hbadan Rouhani, "according to a This report was published on July 2, the day before Trump's tweet.

Zonnour added that "the blow sparked a competition between Iranian officials whose children would benefit from the project," Fox News reported. She granted citizenship to 2,500 Iranians during the negotiations of the PAGC, including government officials, but Zonnour's statement is somewhat different, as Fox News reported. First, it is unclear whether he was referring to US citizenship or legal permanent resident status (green cards). Second, Zonnour's claim was that Iranian government officials were competing for US citizenship or green cards for their children, not for themselves. "There are some Iranians in the ruling establishment who have or had US citizenship or permanent residence, typically dating from the pre-revolutionary period," said Suzanne Maloney, an Iranian expert at the Brookings Institution. "There are also Iranian officials whose children have found their way to US universities and stayed in the United States, or have married dual nationals and obtained residency or citizenship in this way." 19659005 "The allegation alone is used as a slander, to attack patriotism and challenge the motives of rival officials by accusing them of essentially hypocrisy and ideological opportunism." so not surprising that a critical politician with regard to the nuclear deal is using this line of attack, especially following the dismantling of the deal by President Trump, who provoked a violent reaction towards the supporters of the agreement. "

In short, it is possible that Zonnour, a politician who opposes the agreement with Iran, argues that Rouhani gave the store and was rewarded by Obama with an offer to give citizenship or green cards to the children of his supporters. After Trump announced that the US was leaving the JCPOA, Zonnour said that Iran should resume enrichment of high level uranium unless Rouhani gets the "guarantees". necessary "from other countries of the agreement, according to Iranian media. as the Department of Justice has said in court. But the administration has not provided any evidence to support this claim. The White House has not responded to a request for comment. The departments of Homeland Security and the state did not answer our questions.

We asked Ben Rhodes, who was a key figure in Iran's negotiations and badistant adviser to Obama's national security, to say that 2500 Iranians American citizenship or green cards during the negotiations JCPOA.

"I've never heard that number before," Rhodes said. "It is certain that this was not part of the agreement with Iran."

Two senior Obama administration officials who had authority over immigration issues told The Fact Checker that they did not know the Obama administration's offer. citizenship or green cards to 2,500 Iranians in the PAGC negotiations. Both officials stated that the allegation was highly implausible, since such an offer to Iran would have required a high level authorization, and they had no indication that the company was in the process of doing so. authorization was requested or given.

"This is not something that would have been negotiated without being super public at the time," said one of the officials. "There is no doubt that Iranians have been coming to the United States as refugees for a long time, there are high levels of political and religious persecution in Iran, we may have brought refugees who were civil servants. from the government of a certain level.But anyone who was a government official would be subject to a very high level of examination and in most cases would be forbidden to enter because of the link with the regime. "

In 2015, US officials granted legal permanent resident status to 13,114 people born in Iran and 10,344 persons of Iranian origin were naturalized, according to data from the Department of internal security. Combining these two totals, the United States granted citizenship or legal status to 2,223 more Iranians than in 2014, but the 2015 figures do not differ significantly from the historical trends of the last 10 years, according to DHS data.

"I've never heard of this claim before," said Maloney about Trump's tweet and Zonnour's badertion. "Frankly, if there is an ounce of truth to that, I would be shocked."

Zonnour estimated that 30 to 40 of the 2,500 people believed to have citizenship or green cards were studying in the United States, according to the Fars Report. He did not name anyone. A niece of Rouhani's life in the United States, as does a daughter of Ali Larijani, the speaker of the Iranian parliament.

These expats and others are a problem in Iran. In part because the country is on Trump's travel ban list, Iranians on social networks have asked US authorities to expel children from regime officials, an expert quoted by Fox News

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