Senators Paid Attention to Iranian Intellectuals’ Letters

In recent weeks, various letters signed by Iranian intellectuals and political activists inside and outside the country have been published in support of or in opposition to the Iranian nuclear agreement. These letters were addressed to US legislators currently evaluating the nuclear deal and to the American people, asking them to support or oppose the agreement. Iranian Diplomacy recently spoke to Hooman Majd, a journalist and expert on Iranian affairs, about the impact such letters could have.

How do the letters written by Iranian intellectuals and political activists inside and outside the country to US senators and the American people influence US public opinion?

I think these kinds of initiatives--open letters, ads, etc., have a cumulative effect. Much like advertising itself, you need repetition and as many different forms as possible, and the more a message is repeated, by different people in this case, the more likely the influence. Naturally, this particular initiative was aimed at a sophisticated audience--those who read newspapers and those who pay attention to international affairs (a minority within a minority!).

Do the addressees, whether the senators or the people, have any familiarity with these Iranian figures, and can they be influenced in any way by their words?

I think Senators and Congressmen and women (and their aides) certainly see these kinds of efforts, and undoubtedly paid some attention, only because in this case you had people not ordinarily known to be sympathetic to policies of the Islamic Republic defending a deal that was undergoing scrutiny by the media and the legislative branch of government. But neither ordinary people nor the lawmakers necessarily would recognize most of the signatories--perhaps some, such as Reza Aslan who had a bestselling book on Jesus in the past year. It's hard to say whether this particular initiative was effective in swaying anyone, but I think as part of a campaign it certainly was noticed. 

What mechanisms do American citizens have to press their representatives for certain issues?

Americans who care about an issue can write to or call their representatives in Congress and the Senate. And they often do--sometimes urged by lobbies. Lawmakers have staff that deal with these calls and emails--they compile the statistics for the Senators or Congressmen who then have an idea of what their constituents are thinking (and how they might vote in the next election). As an example, when Obama gave Congress the opportunity to vote on military action in Syria, Congressmen were reporting that calls were running at 90% against, which had to have an effect on their vote to disapprove US military action at that time.

To what extent would the American public opinion be impressed by such letters?

Public opinion, to the extent that the public is paying attention, is probably only marginally affected. The public can be affected by big celebrities speaking one way or another on an issue--if Kim Kardashian and Beyonce were to come out strongly for the deal, then public opinion would be impressed!