Calling on the Government of Iran to Release Dr. Haleh Esfandiari

Floor Speech

CALLING ON THE GOVERNMENT OF IRAN TO RELEASE DR. HALEH ESFANDIARI -- (House of Representatives - June 05, 2007)

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Tennessee (Mr. Tanner) for his leadership on the Foreign Affairs Committee and for our national security interests around the world, and I thank the chairman of the committee, Mr. Lantos, and the ranking member, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, for their bipartisan support in sending a strong message to the government of Iran that their actions are absolutely unacceptable and to pass this legislation to immediately and unconditionally release the Americans of Iranian descent that are being held by the government of Iran.

It was on May 30 of 2007, just a few weeks ago, the day after Washington and Tehran held their high profile talks with respect to Iraq that Iran turned around and charged three Iranian Americans, one academic, Haleh Esfandiari, a social scientist, Kian Tajbakhsh, and a journalist, Parnaz Azima, with spying, a charge which under Iran's Islamic law is punishable by death.

These trumped up charges are absolutely ridiculous. Haleh Esfandiari is a constituent of mine. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland. She is a 67-year-old Director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Kian Tajbakhsh is a respected social scientist who is consulted by George Soros' Open Society Institute at the World Bank, and Parnaz Azima is a Radio Farda journalist.

The government of Iran accused these Iranian Americans of endangering state security and fomenting a, quote, soft revolution. These are ridiculous charges under any circumstances and clearly an excuse by Iran to once again take action in violation of international law.

Just to emphasize the point, Ms. Esfandiari is someone who has invited scholars and statesmen from Iran to the United States to conferences and events and has even been criticized by some members of the Iranian American community for being too soft on the current regime in Tehran. Mr. Tajbakhsh has consulted directly for the Iranian government and, working with the Open Society Institute, helped run its humanitarian health outreach program in Iran with full cooperation of the Iranian government.

The lists of foreign detainees doesn't stop there. Iranian American businessman Ali Shakeri, who is on the board of the University of California at Irvine's Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, was arrested on May 8 as he returned to the United States from visiting his ill mother, who died during his stay.

These detainees have dedicated their lives to building bridges between the Americans and the people of Iran. Their presence in Iran to visit their parents or to conduct humanitarian work poses absolutely no threat to the people or the government of Iran.

Their detention is a gross perversion of the rule of law. And the claim that
the Iranian government has made that they seek dialogue and improved relations with the West is belied by the actions they have taken with respect to these individuals.

So we call today upon the Iranian government to do as they say they want to do, which is to have a better relationship with the United States and the people of the United States and to immediately, unconditionally release these Americans.

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