Since 2017, Iranians have widely discussed reports that the Obama administration granted a number of U.S. Green Cards (variously reported as 2,500 or 2,800) to Khomeiniist regime leaders as part of a secret codicil to the 2015 nuclear deal, the JCPOA.
This allegation was first published on February 14th of that year by Amad News, an outlet founded by dissident Ruhollah Zam, who was later lured into a trap by IRGC intelligence, forcibly taken to Iran, summarily tried, and then executed in 2020. At the time, the story did not gain traction in the West, though it was covered by prominent outlets such as Al Arabiya.
