Jack Black, Morgan Freeman and Iranian-American actor Farshad Farahat have joined a campaign to encourage US Congressmen and their constituents to endorse the Iran nuclear deal.
In a video posted on YouTube, the celebrities — which also include Jordan’s Queen Noor and US Ambassador Thomas Pickering — have joined Global Zero, an international organization that campaigns against nuclear weapons, to raise awareness about the importance of a nuclear deal and urging people to recognize the important role it could play in averting a nuclear conflict.
All sides have 60 days to review the 59-page document, which will lead to the deal being finalized. But there is still much anxiety about whether the United States Congress will ratify the deal, and many representatives, including Tennessee Senator Bob Corker and House Speaker John Boehner, have already been spoken out against the deal, insisting it is a dangerous move towards allowing Iran to develop and stock nuclear weapons.
The video, which pokes fun at the most inflammatory and scaremongering claims issued by US hardliners, has a serious message at heart: “Don't let Congress play politics with our national security. Tell them to support the Iran nuclear deal.”
The clip takes a wry look at the anxieties of American politicians and citizens, describing terrifying scenarios designed by politicians and the media to scare the American public into opposing the deal, only to finally dismantle them through satire. Black and Freeman lament that they will not be able to do their favorite everyday things, like playing frisbee or seeing their grandchildren smile, because everyone will be “super dead” after the inevitable onset of nuclear war. The video then offers rational and balanced arguments for why the deal is the best option for Americans.
When Iran and the P5+1 countries signed a nuclear deal in Vienna on July 14, crowds of people took to the streets of Tehran to celebrate. And in the US, many Iranian-Americans expressed their excitement too, seeing an historical opportunity for Iran and the US to begin the long process of improving relations, and a chance for Iran to open up to the international community.
But a formidable media campaign against the deal in the US has made it clear that those US politicians and activists who support the deal— arguing that diplomacy is the best way of guaranteeing United States’ national security — had to take action too.
IranWire spoke to Farshad Farahat about the video and what the nuclear deal could mean for the future.
How did you get behind this initiative? What is your understanding of how the other celebrities got involved?
I’m a board member of Ploughshares Fund, and they’re big proponents of disarming nuclear weapons around the world, and big champions of the nuclear deal. They believe it’s a great example for disarmament programs for the rest of the world. We discussed making a video, so, since they have connections with Global Zero, another strong organization in support of the deal, we all started discussing this, we brainstormed together.
Global Zero spearheaded the project, they had relationships with various celebrities, who appeared on a previous video — with Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman — in response to what Obama had said at the beginning of his presidency about nuclear weapons. So some of those previous Hollywood connections agreed to come on board.
When the nuclear deal was signed, what were your initial thoughts and feelings, especially from the perspective of being an Iranian American?
I’m very optimistic about it; it’s a fresh approach, rather than the sanctions that we’ve had for years, including the oil embargo after 1953. Iran has been, in one way or another, under international pressure since then. I’m very optimistic about its potential result and I think it will embolden and strengthen civil society in Iran.
How hopeful are you that Congress will approve the deal?
I’m hoping they will; I’m hoping they’ll see the logic behind it. I’m hoping they will see it’s in the United States’ national security interests and of its allies in the region — and that its interests are in line with Iran. I’m optimistic that at least enough members of Congress will see the light and the opportunity here to take a different course.
What’s the climate like in the US at the moment?
From the conversations I’ve had, it seems to be guarded optimism, I think. There are a lot of ads going in against the deal, misrepresenting it.
Sometimes with the polls it depends how the question is asked. Whenever the question is posed: “Would you rather have a diplomatic solution or war?", people will go 64% — I think that was the last CNN poll result — for diplomacy. In the end that is the choice: either there is a diplomatic solution — and this is the best one I think we can get — or the other option is leading to war, or economic war. In my opinion, people in the States are tired of war, and war in the Middle East especially. Once the deal is passed, we’ll see public support grow further.
In terms of the video, how important is humor in getting the message across that the nuclear deal is a good thing?
Absolutely important — especially if you end it seriously. It came out at a pretty opportune time, when a lot of our Congressman and a lot of our presidential candidates made pretty outrageous comments. For example, Mike Huckabee made the comment: “Obama’s marching the Jewish people to the oven” — a very inflammatory comment. This video mocks that in a way and shows how absurd it is to use an inflammatory comment to talk about a very serious issue. I like the comedy that approaches those kinds of comments and then finishes off with the reality of the deal. And we brought in other other members of Global Zero outside of Hollywood, such as Ambassador Pickering and Queen Noor and Valerie Plame [former CIA operations officer]. And also, again, this video is backed by many top non-proliferation scientists and nuclear scientists. If you look at it, it goes along with what most nuclear experts are saying about the deal.
Is this a one-off project or do you have plans for further projects focusing on the nuclear deal and Iranian-US relations?
We’re hoping to do one with the Iranian people after the deal is finalized. Iran has a population of 70 to 75 percent under the age of 35. It has a civil society that is 2,500 years old, which has reformed or toppled many regimes that have tried to rule between the Caspian and the Persian Gulf. It’s important for the American people and Congress to realize that this civil society is pro-engagement with America — probably the most pro-engagement civilization in the region — and that it can be a great ally for America, for national security, and in preventing war.
Importantly, that civil society, in my opinion, is the only entity that can safeguard this deal, and reign in Iran’s government from other conflicts in the region. I feel that's what’s really missing out from the discussion, that this deal will strengthen Iranian civil society, which can be a great ally to US interests. Hopefully we’ll do a follow-up video of some of the celebrations in Iran and some of the messages coming out of the Iranian news.
Do you think Iran and Iranians are misunderstood in the US?
They’re misrepresented by people who are invested in the conflict. By people who need this animosity, people who make money out of this animosity — whether they’re lobby groups or corporations woking in the region. They’re misrepresenting this because they need the conflict to continue — and the same misrepresentation is done by a lot of Iranian hardliners about the West and America. So hopefully we can start bringing in economic corporations, agriculture, green technology that could link with a civil society. Pretty soon we’ll have companies invested in the solution. Because right now we only have companies invested in the problem.
I just hope we can open up to the Iranian people economically and culturally.
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