Members of the U.S. Congress introduced a new resolution on Wednesday, expressing their support for “the Iranian people’s desire for a democratic, secular, and nonnuclear Republic of Iran” and condemning the Iranian regime’s human rights violations and sponsorship of terrorism.
The resolution, H. RES. 100, was introduced by Congressman Tom McClintock and has already garnered the support of 166 members of the Congress. In addition to the current round of uprisings, which began in September, the resolution acknowledges the longtime efforts of the people of Iran obtain their freedom, including the recent nationwide uprisings in 2017 and 2019, and the protest movements in 1999 and 2009. It also highlights the massacre of “thousands political prisoners in 1988,” in which the regime’s current president Ebrahim Raisi played a key role. The lawmakers further draw attention to the regime’s human rights abuses against religious and ethnic minorities, including “Iranian Kurds, Baluchis, Arabs, Christians, Jews, Baha’is, Zoroastrians, and even Sunni Muslims.”
The “Iranian people have been deprived of their fundamental freedoms for which reason they are rejecting monarchic dictatorship and religious tyranny, as evident in their protest slogans,” the resolution reads in part, referring to the popular slogan that is being chanted in Iran’s streets these days: “Death to the tyrant, be it the Shah or the Supreme Leader.”
The resolution also warns about the regime’s wanton use of terrorism abroad, including an attempt to bomb the rally of the Iranian Resistance in Paris in 2018 and bombing plots against MEK members in Albania.
In addition to supporting the protests and the Iranian people’s struggle to “establish and democratic, secular, and nonnuclear Republic of Iran,” the lawmakers called on the “United States Government agencies to work with European allies” and “hold Iran accountable for breaching diplomatic privileges” and to further prevent the malign activities of the Iranian regime by closing its diplomatic facilities and expelling its agents.
Congressional Press Briefing
Supporting a Secular, Democratic, Non-Nuclear Republic of #Iran #IranRevoIution #مرگ_بر_ستمگر_چه_شاه_باشه_چه_رهبر https://t.co/Ks1lPsBRD6
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) February 8, 2023
“With this resolution Congress is expressing the plain truth of the matter in citing so many instances of human rights abuses and terrorism cloaked in diplomacy,” Mr. McClintock said in a press briefing where he introduced the resolution. “The bipartisan house majority is telling the Iranian people and the world that it stands with the organized resistance and against the tyrannical rulers who have wrecked their country and plagued the Middle East with terrorism and brutality.”
Also speaking at the event, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said, “Today, after more than 40 years of repression and resistance, the Iranian nation is ready again to overthrow another form of dictatorship. They want to put an end to one century of dictatorship and establish a democratic, pluralistic, and secular republic. What you see in Iran today is another revolution in the making. This is the result of 40 years of organized resistance and struggle against the regime, with 120,000 political executions.”
We mark the anniversary of the 1979anti-dictatorial revolution,when a unified nation deposed the Shah to achieve freedom & democracy
Now, after 40years of repression & resistance, Iran as a nation, is ready once more to overthrow the ruling religious dictatorship#IranRevolution pic.twitter.com/1xw3Ad6gwK— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) February 8, 2023
“This revolution is focused on ending any kind of dictatorship in Iran. This is evident in the popular slogan: death to the dictator be it the Shah or the leader. I applaud all who are demanding an end to the totalitarian regime and seek a form of governance that derives its legitimacy from the people, not from an unelected dictatorial single party,” said Rep. Randy Weber. “We want the world to recognize this, and we want people to recognize that the future is headed by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi.”
“It is so important that we stand together in a bipartisan way to support the people of Iran and to condemn the ongoing abuses of this regime,” Rep. Kevin Kiley said. “It’s equally important that we, the United States, do not do anything to enable and embolden this regime and its capacity to threaten its own people, and to wreak havoc in the Middle East and across the world.”
“I am here this morning to be able to celebrate Madam [Rajavi] and her message of leadership. I’m here to celebrate men and women but I’m also here to celebrate the leadership of women, and what has happened in the streets of this very fine land,” Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee said.