IRAN: REALITY, OPTIONS, AND CONSEQUENCES [View All]

[Phx_Dem]

Testimony by Karim Sadjadpour
Associate
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
National Security and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee
Washington, DC
October 30, 2007

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee,
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I commend the committee for its interest in understanding the views of the Iranian people, who project a fundamentally different image of their country than that espoused by their president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It goes without saying that it is difficult to make broad generalizations about a socially
diverse population of 70 million people. Yet I do believe there are some important thoughts and trends among Iranians which transcend age, gender, religiosity, and socioeconomic class distinctions. Based largely on my experience living and traveling throughout Iran intermittently from 2001-2005, I would like to outline briefly a number of important factors
and their implications for U.S. policy. I preface my comments by saying that any kind of U.S. military attack on Iran would alter substantially the factors I list below, almost entirely for the negative.

More at:
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/2007-10-30_ks_testimony.pdf