Urging Iran to Release All Detained United States Citizens and Provide Any Information Regarding United States Citizens That Have Disappeared Within Its Borders

Floor Speech

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank our distinguished chairman and thank both he and Eliot Engel for the leadership that they have both shown.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for keeping that focus on all issues related to Iran and for doing it so effectively, including and especially the human rights abuses that are occurring there each and every day.

Mr. Speaker, the most important duty of the President of the United States is to keep Americans safe from harm, whether they are at home or abroad. Three innocent Americans continue to be brutalized in Iran prisons and trapped in a system of sham trials. A fourth American, another innocent man, has been missing from Iran for more than 8 years and presumed to also be imprisoned in that country.

When Americans have been hostages in foreign lands or on foreign seas, Presidents from both parties have prioritized their rescue, sometimes even asking the finest from our fighting forces to risk their lives to save them.

It is an important question why the President has failed to make the release of our fellow Americans his top priority with the Iranian regime. How often have we heard the administration speak out, pressure being put to bear on the Iranian regime, even as the talks continue on the nuclear issue?

It seems to me I will never forget when Nagameh Abedini came and testified at one of Frank Wolf's hearings. She said they told her there was nothing they could do for her husband at the U.S. Department of State.

Thankfully, a call to John Kerry by Mr. Wolf, chairman of the Lantos committee at the time, did yield fruit; and they did begin to raise his name and his calls.

The President seems to think, however, that the Iranian regime can be trusted to keep a nuclear deal and no longer seek to develop and make nuclear weapons. I would suggest that a regime that continues to imprison our fellow citizens cannot be trusted.

A regime that so regularly and violently violates human rights and basic freedoms of its own people cannot be trusted. A regime that sponsors terrorism against other countries as a tool of foreign policy cannot be trusted.

H. Res. 233 makes very clear that Iran should release all detained U.S. citizens immediately and provide any information it possesses regarding any United States citizens that have disappeared within its borders.

Mr. Speaker, we must remember the husbands and fathers, sons and daughters, the families, in addition to those who are being exploited and cruelly mistreated.

I want to thank Chairman Royce for the hearing that he just convened a few days ago. We heard from the family members. Their plea was impassioned. It was heartbreaking, and it was very, very motivating.

Imprisoned since 2012, Pastor Abedini, 35 years old, husband of Nagameh Abedini--who testified several times before my subcommittee and has been an extraordinary champion for his release--father of two children, he had returned to Iran to build an orphanage. He had gotten prior clearance, told that he could do it. Once he was there, they arrested him, and they have mistreated him ever since then.

Imprisoned since 2012, Amir Hekmati, 31 years old, a former sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps. He had returned to Iran to visit his grandmother and other relatives. They scooped him up, and he has been mistreated ever since.

Imprisoned since 2011, Jason Rezaian, 39 years old, Tehran's bureau chief for The Washington Post, a reporter who publishes what is going on in that regime, he now is facing a trial, a show trial, a sham trial.

Imprisoned since 2014, Robert Levinson, 67 years old, husband, father, grandfather, he has been missing in Iran since the year 2007.

Mr. Speaker, Pastor Abedini, Mr. Hekmati, Mr. Rezaian, and Mr. Levinson are all Americans, and they are being, right today, subjected to abuse and cruelty. They are all prisoners or missing in Iran.

We call on the administration to retriple its efforts to secure their release.

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