Members of the US Congress introduced H. RES. 100, a resolution in support of the Iranian people’s quest for a democratic, secular, and non-nuclear republic. The resolution, introduced by Congressman Tom McClintock, already has the backing of 166 members of Congress. The resolution acknowledges the long history of the Iranian people’s fight for freedom, including past nationwide uprisings in 2017 and 2019 and protest movements in 1999 and 2009, all of which were brutally suppressed by the regime.
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 condemns the regime’s long history of human rights abuses, including the 1988 massacre of thousands of political prisoners, in which the current president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, played a key role as one of the main judges who sent prisoners to their death in Tehran and Karaj.
The lawmakers draw attention to the ongoing abuse against religious and ethnic minorities, such as Kurds, Baluchis, Arabs, Christians, Jews, Baha’is, Zoroastrians, and Sunni Muslims.
Moreover, the resolution warns about the regime’s use of terrorism abroad, including a foiled plot led by a Vienna-based Iranian diplomat to bomb a rally of the Iranian Resistance in Paris in 2018, and the regime’s continuous espionage and terror plots against members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Albania.
In addition to supporting the protests and the Iranian people’s fight for a democratic republic, the lawmakers are calling on US government agencies to work with European allies to hold Iran accountable for its breaches of diplomatic privileges and to prevent its malign activities by closing its diplomatic facilities and expelling its agents.
The resolution comes as Iran’s uprisings, which began in September, have continued for nearly five months. So far, the regime has murdered over 750 protesters and arrested at least 30,000 people. Iranian authorities also executed four prisoners so far, and many others are under the threat of being executed.
At a press conference in which the lawmakers presented the resolution, they voiced their support for the Iranian Resistance and Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
“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,” Mr. McClintock said.
Mrs. Rajavi, who spoke at the event, said that the people of Iran “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.”
Rep. Randy Weber, another sponsor of the resolution, stressed that the ongoing revolution in Iran aims to end “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.”
