Submitted Resolutions
Floor Speech
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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I wish to thank the Senator from North Dakota for his leadership on this very important issue. I want to thank him for his perseverance and his vision in seeing the importance--along with Senator McCain, Senator Graham, and Senator Sessions--of this kind of effort, which had its genesis in the trip that we took to Afghanistan, Egypt, Israel, Tunisia, and Libya.
What impressed us so much is how democracy is growing and starting there, and in that part of the world how the dictatorship and tyranny of Iran are such contrasts with the hopeful, burgeoning democracies that are growing there. That is the reason so many of our colleagues--I believe that over 60--have joined.
I want to ask unanimous consent that Senator Klobuchar of Minnesota be added as a cosponsor.
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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am honored today to speak in support of the Hoeven-Blumenthal resolution calling for free and fair elections in Iran and condemning the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for its ongoing violations of human rights. These violations are brutal, tangible, and real in their impact on individual lives in that country, and our hearts go out to the people of Iran, particularly the individuals there fighting for freedom and democracy.
The world has watched the Arab spring bring down dictators in Tunisia and Tripoli, and the people of Iran continue to be denied those basic human rights that we hold dear and which should be universal.
I also want to thank Secretary Clinton for her tireless work in this region. She arrived in Tunisia shortly after we left to consult with all nations interested in aiding the Syrian people and she showed, again, her dedication to this same cause of human rights through her leadership there.
I saw in our meetings with a new generation of leaders that is emerging in the Middle East how dramatic the statements we make here and the actions that we take impress them in their fight for basic human rights. How we are speaking out here for universal suffrage and freedom has an impact on what they do, and perhaps many in our own country need to be reminded about the importance of what we say and do here.
The parliamentary elections that will occur on Friday in Iran will be neither free nor fair. They have already taken actions to assure that it will be, as one observer said, the fakest one yet. But the brutal oppression in human rights going on there is too real for those who suffer at that government's and that regime's hands. As the resolution makes clear, Iran has already disqualified 2,200 candidates from actually running for office simply based on their political views.
It maintains severe restrictions on the press, strangling a free press, preventing even the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe from reaching the people of Iran, having created a sham election, a travesty, and a tragedy. The Iranian regime now will force Iranians to vote at the polls in an effort to show popular support, and force them to vote simply to show this sham support. The truth is it has no such support. Allowing international monitors to bear witness, as we demand in our resolution, would reveal these acts of oppression for what they are and for the world to see.
The last nationwide election held in Iran, on June 12, 2009, was widely condemned throughout the world. Following the election, there was brutal repression documented all too dramatically by the videos and other evidence that, in effect, was smuggled out of Iran, although in real time. That large campaign of politically motivated violence, intimidation, repression, torture, cruel and degrading treatment, including rape, executions, and extrajudicial killings, and indefinite detention is all well documented.
On December 26, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution denouncing the serious human rights abuses occurring in Iran. The Hoeven-Blumenthal resolution lets the people of Iran know we are with them, they are not alone; that we side with them, and we stand and speak out on their behalf because they are not forgotten in their effort for democracy.
The future of the Middle East will be determined first and foremost by the people of the Middle East themselves, but American strength, vision, and leadership are absolutely essential. So in that regard I am very proud and grateful for the 62 cosponsors of this resolution--now 63 with Senator Klobuchar--and I again thank the Senator from North Dakota.
I yield the floor.
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