Urge President Obama to Facilitate Humanitarian Trade and People-to-People Ties with Iran

Many of us joined PAAIA for different reasons. But one thing we can all agree on is that we did so to make our community a stronger one. Today, we hear stories every day of shortages of food and medicine in Iran, Iranian students abroad who can no longer afford to finish their education, and Iranian Americans who are having difficulty sending family remittances to and from Iran.

There is a safe and transparent solution!

And we at PAAIA decided to take action. Last month, we sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging the president to designate a small number of private financial institutions as channels for payment for humanitarian and family remittance-related transactions carefully licensed  by OFAC, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

This policy would be beneficial to the Iranian American community, the Iranian people, and the United States as a whole.  It would show that sanctions are not intended to harm average Iranians by easing the flow of food and medicine to Iran. It would also help facilitate legal family remittances between Iranians and Iranian Americans that are both more transparent and more secure.

But we need your help.

The more letters the White House receives, the greater the chance that it will take action and the greater the possibility of change.