Ebrahim Raisi will assume the Presidency Tuesday, and is accused of crimes against humanity for his role in the execution of thousands in 1988 For Tehran, ‘sanctions relief is the only game in town,’ Ambassador Ginsberg tells Arab News LONDON: Hundreds of Iranian Americans whose relatives were put to death by incoming Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi have rallied in DC to call on the US and its allies to hold him accountable for his crimes against humanity. A number of current and former figures from the US foreign policy apparatus spoke at the rally, attended by Arab News, and expressed their support for the demonstrators, adding to their calls for justice and accountability against the Iranian regime. Hosted by the Organization of Iranian American Communities, Monday’s rally came just one day ahead of Raisi’s official inauguration as the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. And those in attendance in the grounds of Washington DC’s Capitol building had one clear message for the Biden administration and wider international community: Raisi is an international criminal, not a leader — and he should be treated as such. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, addressing the rally, said: “For too long the Iranian people have suffered at the hands of Ali Khamenei and Ebrahim Raisi. Their cries for freedom and justice ring across the world and have the support of freedom-loving Americans.” He continued: “We will stand with the families of those massacred and strenuously encourage the Biden administration to hold Raisi and Khamenei accountable through sanctions and pressing for Raisi’s prosecution for crimes against humanity.” Many of those at the rally told Arab News that they had personally lost loved ones when Raisi presided over what Amnesty International dubbed “death commissions” — sham trials levelled against political prisoners after the Iran-Iraq war. In 1988, then-prosecutor for Tehran Ebrahim Raisi put thousands of political prisoners to death for their affiliation or sympathy for the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) — an Iranian revolutionary group that fell out of favor with the regime and was subsequently violently crushed. Everyone that Arab News spoke with at Monday"s rally continue to support the MEK today. One attendee, Eshrat Dehghan, told Arab News that she lost three of her sons during the death commissions. For this crime and the thousands of others, she said, Raisi “should not be allowed into the UN.” Now relying on a walking stick because of her own torture at the hands of the regime, she said: “the Biden administration should support the people of Iran and the MEK in their struggle against the regime.” Listed for years a terrorist organization, the MEK was removed from the US and Europe’s list of terrorist organizations in 2012 — a victory for Lincoln Bloomfield, who served as Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs in the Bush Administration and who exhaustively investigated claims of terrorism made against the MEK. He told Arab News that throughout his investigation he found no evidence that the group had targeted the US or its allies with terrorism. Bloomfield said: “If there had been any indication of targeting civilians, children, or innocent people that would be different — but this is legitimate resistance to tyranny.” Marc Ginsberg, a former Middle East adviser to the White House, and long-time US diplomat, told Arab News that Saturday"s lethal drone attack on an Israeli owned cargo tanker is “just one more reason” to hold the Raisi regime to account. “I’m in favor of doing everything possible to undermine this regime and its ability to continue to repress, to instigate violence, and incite terrorism in the Middle East,” he said. “Even if (the regime) agrees to roll back their violations of the Iran nuclear agreement, that’s still never going to accomplish the objective of preventing them from developing a nuclear weapon.” Ginsberg also said that beyond the nuclear question Tehran is refusing to give up its other destabilizing activities in the Middle East — and would in fact use the “lifeline” of sanctions relief to further them. “They will not agree to constraints on their ballistic missile program, and they certainly are not going to give up their support for Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthi rebels or Syria’s Assad regime,” he said. “All they want is sanctions relief. Their question is: how little can we give up in exchange for sanctions relief?” Ginsberg added: “For them, sanctions relief is the only game in town.”