Title: Expressing support for the Iranian people's desire for a democratic, secular, and nonnuclear Republic of Iran and condemning violations of human rights and state-sponsored terrorism by the Iranian Government.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution condemns Iranian state-sponsored terrorist attacks against U.S. citizens and officials and Iranian dissidents and expresses support for the people of Iran who are engaged in legitimate and peaceful protests against the Iranian regime.



[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 118 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 118

 Expressing support for the Iranian people's desire for a democratic, 
 secular, and nonnuclear Republic of Iran and condemning violations of 
 human rights and state-sponsored terrorism by the Iranian Government.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 11, 2021

 Mr. McClintock (for himself, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Webster of Florida, Mr. 
 Fitzpatrick, Mr. Loudermilk, Mr. Babin, Mr. Crenshaw, Mr. Bilirakis, 
   Mr. Norman, Mr. Fleischmann, Mr. Hice of Georgia, Mr. Gaetz, Mr. 
Grothman, Mr. Mast, Mr. Meuser, Mr. Griffith, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Bacon, Mr. 
   Ruiz, Ms. Craig, Mr. Peters, Mr. LaMalfa, Ms. Chu, Mr. Perry, Mr. 
  Luetkemeyer, Mrs. Wagner, Mr. Calvert, Mr. Green of Tennessee, Ms. 
 Brownley, Ms. Stefanik, Mr. Aguilar, Mr. Biggs, Mr. Cartwright, Miss 
 Rice of New York, Mrs. Walorski, Mrs. Lesko, Mr. Budd, Mr. Waltz, Mr. 
   Burchett, Mr. Courtney, Mr. Womack, Mr. Stanton, Ms. Granger, Mr. 
Lamborn, Mr. Stauber, Mr. Zeldin, Mr. Harder of California, Mr. Allen, 
Mr. Bera, Mr. Payne, Mr. Cloud, Mr. Wenstrup, Mr. Johnson of Louisiana, 
Mrs. Napolitano, Ms. Jackson Lee, Mr. Bucshon, Mr. Rouzer, Mr. Timmons, 
Mr. Steube, Mr. Rutherford, Mr. Burgess, Mr. Weber of Texas, Mr. Brady, 
   Mr. Hudson, Mr. Latta, Mr. Rogers of Kentucky, Mrs. McBath, Miss 
    Gonzalez-Colon, Mr. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Mr. LaHood, Mr. 
Ferguson, Mr. Estes, Mrs. Rodgers of Washington, Mr. Katko, Mr. Cline, 
Mr. Keller, Mr. Diaz-Balart, Mr. Guthrie, Mrs. Fletcher, Mrs. Miller of 
    West Virginia, Mr. Aderholt, Mr. Crawford, Mr. Wilson of South 
Carolina, Mr. Smith of Missouri, Ms. Malliotakis, Mr. Gonzalez of Ohio, 
 Mr. Young, Mr. Guest, Mr. Barr, Mr. Gooden of Texas, Mr. Taylor, Mr. 
 Larson of Connecticut, Mr. Costa, Mr. DesJarlais, Mr. Austin Scott of 
 Georgia, Mr. Schweikert, Mr. Moore of Alabama, Ms. Wilson of Florida, 
 Mrs. Hartzler, Mr. Emmer, Mr. Fulcher, Mr. Moolenaar, Mr. Nehls, Mr. 
Johnson of Ohio, Mr. Westerman, Mr. Hagedorn, Mr. Allred, Mr. Hill, Mr. 
   Huizenga, Mr. Phillips, Mr. Newhouse, Mr. Brooks, and Mr. Amodei) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
                           on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing support for the Iranian people's desire for a democratic, 
 secular, and nonnuclear Republic of Iran and condemning violations of 
 human rights and state-sponsored terrorism by the Iranian Government.

Whereas beginning in 2017, and continuing for several months after protests 
        erupted in more than 100 cities, the Iranian regime suppressed such 
        protests with repressive forces that resulted in at least 25 deaths and 
        4,000 arrests, including decorated wrestling champion Navid Afkari, who 
        was later executed in September 2020 amidst international outrage;
Whereas, on November 15, 2019, popular protests against the Iranian regime began 
        and rapidly spread to at least 100 cities throughout the country, and 
        reports indicate that Iranian security forces used lethal force and 
        about 1,500 people were killed during less than two weeks of unrest, and 
        thousands more were detained during these protests;
Whereas, in the 116th Congress, the House of Representatives passed House 
        Resolution 752, ``Supporting the rights of the people of Iran to free 
        expression, condemning the Iranian regime for its crackdown on 
        legitimate protests, and for other purposes.'';
Whereas House Resolution 752 urges the Administration to work to convene 
        emergency sessions of the United Nations Security Council and to work 
        with United States partners and allies to condemn the ongoing human 
        rights violations perpetrated by the Iranian regime and establish a 
        mechanism by which the United Nations Security Council can monitor such 
        violations;
Whereas according to a September 2, 2020, Amnesty International report, detained 
        protesters were subjected to ``widespread torture including beatings, 
        floggings, electric shocks, stress positions, mock executions, 
        waterboarding, sexual violence, forced administration of chemical 
        substances, and deprivation of medical care'';
Whereas, from January 11 to 13, 2020, protesters gathered across Iran chanting 
        against Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary 
        Guard Corps after it shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane killing 176 
        civilians, and Iranian authorities deployed tear gas and live ammunition 
        against the protesters;
Whereas the Iranian regime has routinely violated the human rights of Iranian 
        citizens, including by implementing ongoing, systematic, and serious 
        restrictions of freedom of peaceful assembly and association and freedom 
        of opinion and expression, including the continuing closures of media 
        outlets, arrests of journalists, and the censorship of expression in 
        online forums such as blogs and websites;
Whereas the Iranian regime has killed or arrested more than 860 journalists 
        since 1979;
Whereas the Iranian regime has lured three political activists to Iran's 
        neighboring countries, where they were abducted and transferred to Iran, 
        of which one, Ruhollah Zam, was executed on December 12, 2020;
Whereas the Iranian regime has arbitrarily and brutally suppressed ethnic 
        minorities, including Iranian Kurds, Baluchis, and Arabs, as well as 
        religious minorities such as Christians, Jews, Baha'is, Zoroastrians, 
        and even Sunni Muslims and deprived them of their basic human rights, 
        and has in many cases executed them;
Whereas, in the 115th Congress, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4744 
        calling on the United States to ``condemn Iranian human rights abuses 
        against dissidents, including the massacre in 1988 and the suppression 
        of political demonstrations in 1999, 2009, and 2017, and pressure the 
        Government of Iran to provide family members detailed information that 
        they were denied about the final resting places of any missing victims 
        of such abuses'';
Whereas the killings were carried out on the orders of a judge, an official from 
        the Ministry of Intelligence, and a state prosecutor, known to the 
        prisoners as ``Death Commissions'', which were formed on July 19, 1988, 
        and undertook proceedings in a manner designed to eliminate the regime's 
        opponents;
Whereas Amnesty International described as a ``momentous breakthrough'' marking 
        a ``turning point'' the September 3, 2020, communication by seven United 
        Nations human rights experts, regarding information that ``between July 
        and September 1988, the Iranian authorities forcibly disappeared and 
        extrajudicially executed thousands of imprisoned political dissidents 
        affiliated with political opposition groups in 32 cities in secret and 
        discarded their bodies, mostly in unmarked mass graves'', as United 
        Nations experts warned that ``the situation may amount to crimes against 
        humanity'';
Whereas the United Nations calls on the international community to take action 
        to investigate the cases through the establishment of an international 
        investigation;
Whereas the United States should be involved in any establishment of an 
        international investigation into the 1988 extrajudicial killings of 
        Iranian dissidents;
Whereas senior Iranian Government, military, judicial, and security officials 
        have for decades ordered or committed egregious human rights violations 
        and acts of terror;
Whereas the Iranian people have been deprived of their fundamental freedoms for 
        which reason they rejected monarchic dictatorship and are opposing 
        religious tyranny;
Whereas, on June 30, 2018, tens of thousands of people gathered in Paris at the 
        Free Iran gathering where they supported advocates for a democratic, 
        secular, and non-nuclear Republic of Iran, and showed support for the 
        opposition leader Mrs. Maryam Rajavi's 10-point plan for the future of 
        Iran, which calls for the universal right to vote, free elections, and a 
        market economy, and advocates gender, religious, and ethnic equality, a 
        foreign policy based on peaceful coexistence, and a nonnuclear Iran;
Whereas, on July 2, 2018, the Belgian Federal Prosecutor's Office announced it 
        had foiled a terrorist plot against the ``Free Iran 2018-the 
        Alternative'' gathering held on June 30, 2018, in support of the Iranian 
        people's struggle for freedom;
Whereas several prominent bipartisan former United States Government officials, 
        several retired United States generals, congressional staff, and 
        thousands of American citizens participated in that gathering;
Whereas Assadollah Assadi, a senior Iranian diplomat based in the Iranian 
        Embassy in Vienna, Austria, was arrested in Germany in connection with 
        the planned terror plot in Paris;
Whereas the Iranian diplomat has been charged in Belgium in connection with the 
        Paris terror plot and in Germany with ``activity as a foreign agent and 
        conspiracy to commit murder'';
Whereas, on February 4, 2021, a court in Belgium sentenced Iran's diplomat 
        Assadollah Assadi to the maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment for 
        his role in planning to plant a bomb at the Free Iran gathering in 2018, 
        and his 3 accomplices were given jail terms of 15 to 18 years and 
        stripped of their Belgian citizenship;
Whereas Assadi took an Iranian-made bomb from Iran to Europe on a commercial 
        flight, and delivered it to his accomplices with the aim of causing mass 
        casualties at the Free Iran gathering in Paris in 2018;
Whereas the Belgium court found ``that the four defendants are part of a larger 
        terrorist group within a specific Iranian intelligence service. This 
        appears from the sums of money paid to the defendants, the way 
        information was gathered, the meetings in Iran, the use of diplomatic 
        status, and the making and testing of the explosive device in Iran 
        itself.'';
Whereas, on July 10, 2018, a senior Department of State official said, ``Iran 
        uses embassies as cover to plot terrorist attacks'', and that ``The most 
        recent example is the plot that the Belgians foiled, and we had an 
        Iranian diplomat out of the Austrian Embassy as part of the plot to bomb 
        a meeting of Iranian opposition leaders in Paris.'';
Whereas, in January 2019, the European Union (EU) included the Internal Security 
        Division of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), 
        and two of its officials on the EU terror list in connection with the 
        Paris bomb plot;
Whereas according to the Select Iran-Sponsored Operational Activity in Europe, 
        released by the Department of State on July 5, 2018, ``Two Iranian 
        operatives were arrested on charges of terrorism by Albanian 
        authorities'', for a bomb plot against the March 2018 New Year gathering 
        of thousands of Iranian opposition members in Tirana;
Whereas, in December 2018, the Government of Albania expelled Iran's Ambassador, 
        Gholamhossein Mohammadnia, and MOIS station chief in Albania, Mostafa 
        Roudaki, for planning terrorist activities against Iranian dissidents 
        and members of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK);
Whereas, in January 2020, the Government of Albania expelled two other Iranian 
        diplomats also for planning terrorist activities against the MEK;
Whereas the expulsion of the Iranian Ambassador by the Government of Albania is 
        a positive and important step, which sends the right message that no 
        Iranian embassies should be used for plotting terror and conducting 
        spying activities against dissidents;
Whereas Iran's malign activities in the Balkans, specifically its presence and 
        activities in Albania, pose a serious threat to United States national 
        security interests;
Whereas the Department of State has urged ``all nations to be vigilant about 
        Iran using embassies as diplomatic cover to plot terrorist attacks''; 
        and
Whereas the United States Government arrested two Iranian nationals in August 
        2018 who had acted on behalf of the MOIS to conduct covert surveillance 
        in the United States against officials of the National Council of 
        Resistance of Iran for a target package, which, according to the 
        Department of Justice Federal complaint, may include ``apprehension, 
        recruitment, cyber exploitation, or capture/kill operations'', and that 
        they pleaded guilty and were sentenced to imprisonment: Now, therefore, 
        be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) condemns past and present Iranian state-sponsored 
        terrorist attacks against United States citizens and officials, 
        as well as Iranian dissidents, including the Iranian regime's 
        terror plot against the ``Free Iran 2018-the Alternative'' 
        gathering in Paris;
            (2) calls on relevant United States Government agencies to 
        work with European allies, including those in the Balkans where 
        Iran has expanded its presence, to hold Iran accountable for 
        breaching diplomatic privileges, and to call on nations to 
        prevent the malign activities of the Iranian regime's 
        diplomatic missions, with the goal of closing them down, 
        including the Iranian Embassy in Albania;
            (3) stands with the people of Iran who are continuing to 
        hold legitimate and peaceful protests against an oppressive and 
        corrupt regime; and
            (4) recognizes the rights of the Iranian people and their 
        struggle to establish a democratic, secular, and nonnuclear 
        Republic of Iran.
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