Dear Kansas and Missouri Senators, Jerry Moran, Pat Robert, Claire McCaskill, and Roy Blunt,

We believe that there is a historical moment awaiting the American decision about the Middle East. The people of Iran – just had - an election with more than 70% participation. Unlike Saudi Arabia, a country whose own citizens participated in the tragic events of 9/11, Iranians held a candlelight vigil for the victims.

Iran is an exception in the Middle East. The majority of people in Iran are by far the most similar to the US in their values and outlook. The core foundation of American constitution goes back to Cyrus the Great creed of human rights written over 2500 years ago. The populace is educated, girls attend schools, women make up more than half of the students at Tehran University, many women have professional careers in various fields, including sports, academia, members of the parliament and the government cabinet, there is excellent medical care, and western tourists are pouring into the country.

The U.S. is fortunate to have many Iranians and Iranian Americans here. They are highly educated and contribute economically and socially to the welfare of the US.

Iranians are victims of terrorism. In fact, Shiites are the number one target of ISIS. Therefore, Iran is a natural ally of the West against ISIS. Last week, in the holy city of Mecca, the Saudi government installed prayer leader of Mecca echoed ISIS, “Shiites throughout the world should be killed.” We hope the US will begin to understand the fact that both countries need to work together to defeat this foe.

We, the undersigned residents of the States of Kansas and Missouri stand against terrorist attacks anywhere in the world, be it in London or in Tehran. As a positive step to discourage further turmoil in the Middle East, we encourage you NOT to enact new sanctions against Iran. Encouraging continued embargoes, will just weaken the people but not the regimes in power, making it unlikely that moderate voices will gain a foothold or democracy, have a chance to flourish.

Let us work with a country that has agreed to and supports a historic nuclear deal with six western countries. Let us help a country that is showing some signs of democracy. Let us support a country whose young people admire and would like to interact peacefully with the US.