Dear John,

Big news: lawmakers including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Ilhan Omar are urging their colleagues to sign a letter to the White House calling for immediate relief of sanctions to help ordinary Iranians combat the Coronavirus pandemic.

This is a critically important effort coming at the Iranian people’s hour of need. We need to make sure that our elected government in the U.S. is not preventing Iranians from getting the support they need to get medicine and respirators, food and basic goods and services to weather the pandemic. 

📋 Please urge your Representative to sign the AOC letter to Trump >>

On Friday, NIAC and our partners at Just Foreign Policy, J Street, MoveOn.org, Win Without War, and Friends Committee on National Legislation sent our own letter urging the White House to suspend sanctions as a humanitarian gesture to the Iranian people. Read the letter here >>

This comes as the international community - including the United Kingdom and Pakistan - encourage the administration to ease sanctions in light of the dire nature of the Coronavirus outbreak in the country.

We can't control how Iran's government handles this crisis, but we can decide how our own government responds. And the U.S. must be part of the solution rather than a part of the problem. Thankfully, some of the most prominent legislators in Congress understand this well and are doing their part to urge a more humane approach toward Iran. 

Please take action today so we can stem the spread of this virus and stand in solidarity with our loved ones in Iran.

Best,

Jamal Abdi
Executive Director, NIAC Action