by Anna Giaritelli
Washington Examiner, January 4, 2018 – Vice President Mike Pence is calling out leaders of Western nations to stand with the United States as it supports Iranians who are protesting their own government.
“The United States has spoken clearly and unequivocally. Unfortunately, many of our European partners, as well as the United Nations, have thus far failed to forcefully speak out on the growing crisis in Iran. It’s time for them to stand up,” Pence wrote in an op-ed published late Wednesday.
“The suppression of the Green Revolution in 2009 shows the disastrous price of silence,” he added. “The president and I call on leaders of freedom-loving nations across the world to condemn Iran’s unelected dictators and defend the Iranian people’s unalienable right to chart their own future and determine their own destiny.”
Pence criticized the Obama administration’s delayed and less-than-adequate response to the Green Revolution, in which millions of Iranians protested what they said were fraudulent election results. Pence said he witnessed an “abdication of American leadership” from his seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“The last administration’s refusal to act ultimately emboldened Iran’s tyrannical rulers to crack down on the dissent. The Green Revolution was ruthlessly put down, and the deadly silence on the streets of Iran matched the deafening silence from the White House. To this day, many Iranians blame the United States for abandoning them in their hour of need,” he added.
The former Indiana governor promised to give U.S. aid to the protesters, who have been rallying in the streets for a week and a half.
Pence also credited Trump for predicting the protests during his September speech before the United Nations General Assembly.
“Months before the protests started in Iran, the president predicted that the days of the Iranian regime were numbered. Speaking at the United Nations in September, he said, ‘The good people of Iran want change, and, other than the vast military power of the United States, Iran’s people are what their leaders fear the most.’ Much like another president who made similar predictions about the Soviet Union, the president was mocked,” Pence said.
