Thirty-two years ago, the Iranian regime waged a brutal campaign of torturing and executing thousands of its citizens, who were in prison for merely exercising their fundamental human right, to express their own opinions. The Supreme Leader’s Death Committee sought out those whose political ideas were regarded as incompatible with the theocratic state and ensured that they would simply disappear.
In the House of Representatives, I have introduced a resolution condemning Iran’s terrorist acts and its nuclear aspirations and supporting the Iranian people’s desire for a democratic, secular and nonnuclear republic. That resolution now has gone to 221 cosponsors, a strong bipartisan majority of the chamber. That so many members of Congress have come together to condemn these terrorist acts and express in no uncertain terms our support for the Iranian people’s fight for freedom is a testament to the effectiveness and resiliency of the opposition movement.
It is becoming increasingly evident that Iran’s rulers are beginning to fear the resistance. During the massive opposition protests in late 2018, the authorities shut down the Internet for more than a week to suppress information about protests and related state violence. When silencing protesters wasn’t enough for them, they killed those protesters in the streets.
The Iranian opposition to the regime, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, is steadily gaining momentum and has thus become the main target of the regime’s global terrorists. Dozens of the Iranian regime’s so-called diplomats, as well as its agents, have been expelled or jailed by the European nations including Belgium, France, Albania, as well as the United States for their terror plots, particularly against the NCRI officials. The Iranian resistance remains as a target of repression in Iran. Many of its supporters have recently been arrested in Iran for their affiliation with this movement. Last November, the regime murdered at least 1,500 innocent Iranians protesting its cover ups, its mismanagement and its rank corruption. True change will require treating the Iranian dictatorship as the international pariah that it is. And it will require providing every ounce of moral and material support that the Iranian opposition needs to rid their nation of this fascist Islamic dictatorship, to restore their proud heritage of Persia, and to restore their rightful place among the civilized nations of the world.
This was a speech by Tom McClintock on Friday 18th September 2020 at the Trans-Atlantic Summit on Iran Policy organised by the National Council of Resistance of Iran