A new Center for Security Policy report authored by Clare Lopez, a former CIA senior operations officer, claims that lobbyists in favor of the Iranian government, including former U.S. officials, are receiving more access to the federal government, WorldTribune.com reports. The report is titled "Rise of the Iran Lobby."

The report accuses the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the National Iranian-American Council as leading the lobbyists with a "de-facto partnership." CAIR is a non-profit organization that says it condemns terrorism, but was labeled by the federal government last year as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in a terrorism financing trial.

Both organizations have called on the U.S. government to reach out to the Iranian government.

The report also criticized the American-Iranian Council as being part of the lobbying effort. The organization receives funding from oil companies like Chevron Texaco, Aramco, and Conoco Philips that could profit if sanctions on Iran were dropped.

"A complex network of individuals and organizations with ties to the clerical regime in Teheran is pressing forward in seeming synchrony to influence the new U.S. administration's policy towards the Islamic republic of Iran," the report concludes.

Lopez claims that the pro-Iran lobby, which includes sympathetic academics and diplomats, help fund members of Congress that support their views.

"If the Obama administration does not hear a persuasive alternative position, cogently presented, and soon, Iran's carefully-crafted clandestine intelligence operation to exercise effective control over America's Iran policy could succeed - to the profound detriment of U.S. national interests and those of our friends and allies in the Middle East region and around the world," the report concludes.

The Christian Action Network covered reports last year that Vice President Biden was supported by organizations that favored better relations with the Iranian government.

Kaveh Mohseni, the spokesperson of the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran, was quoted by Kenneth Timmerman of Newsmax.com as calling Senator Biden a "great friend of the mullahs."

Lopez is also the Executive-Director of the Iran Policy Committee that believes the U.S. government should the democratic Iranian opposition in overthrowing the government of Iran. The organization has been criticized in some quarters for calling on the State Department to de-list the Mujahideen-e-Khalq from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, arguing it is a democratic group opposed to terrorism.