February 26, 2025
Mr. McClintock (for himself, Mr. Aderholt, Mr. Allen, Mr. Amodei of Nevada, Mr. Babin, Mr. Bacon, Mr. Baird, Mr. Barrett, Mr. Baumgartner, Mr. Bean of Florida, Mr. Bentz, Mr. Bera, Mr. Bilirakis, Mr. Bishop, Mr. Boyle of Pennsylvania, Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Burchett, Mr. Calvert, Mr. Carbajal, Mr. Carter of Georgia, Mr. Carter of Texas, Mr. Ciscomani, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Cline, Mr. Clyde, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Correa, Mr. Costa, Ms. Craig, Mr. Crane, Mr. Crenshaw, Ms. Davids of Kansas, Mr. Davis of North Carolina, Mr. DesJarlais, Mr. Dunn of Florida, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Ellzey, Ms. Fedorchak, Mr. Feenstra, Mr. Finstad, Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. Fleischmann, Mr. Flood, Mrs. Foushee, Mr. Scott Franklin of Florida, Mr. Fry, Mr. Fulcher, Mr. Gimenez, Mr. Goldman of Texas, Mr. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Mr. Gooden, Mr. Gottheimer, Mr. Graves, Mr. Grothman, Mr. Guest, Mr. Guthrie, Mr. Hamadeh of Arizona, Mr. Harder of California, Mr. Haridopolos, Mr. Higgins of Louisiana, Mrs. Hinson, Ms. Houlahan, Ms. Hoyle of Oregon, Mr. Hunt, Mr. Hurd of Colorado, Mr. Issa, Mr. Jack, Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Mr. Jackson of Texas, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Mr. Joyce of Pennsylvania, Ms. Kelly of Illinois, Mrs. Kim, Mr. LaHood, Mr. LaLota, Mr. LaMalfa, Mr. Landsman, Mr. Langworthy, Mr. Latta, Mr. Lawler, Ms. Lofgren, Mr. Loudermilk, Mr. Luttrell, Ms. Mace, Ms. Malliotakis, Ms. Maloy, Mrs. McBath, Mr. McCormick, Mrs. McIver, Mr. Menendez, Ms. Meng, Mr. Meuser, Mrs. Miller of West Virginia, Mr. Miller of Ohio, Mrs. Miller-Meeks, Mr. Moolenaar, Mr. Moore of Alabama, Mr. Moskowitz, Mr. Moulton, Mr. Moylan, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Nehls, Mr. Newhouse, Mr. Norcross, Mr. Nunn of Iowa, Mr. Obernolte, Mr. Owens, Mr. Pallone, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Panetta, Mr. Pappas, Mr. Quigley, Mr. Rogers of Kentucky, Ms. Ross, Mr. Ruiz, Mr. Rutherford, Ms. Salinas, Mr. Schmidt, Mr. Austin Scott of Georgia, Mr. David Scott of Georgia, Mr. Self, Mr. Sessions, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Smith of Nebraska, Mr. Soto, Mr. Stauber, Mr. Steube, Mr. Suozzi, Mr. Thanedar, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Mr. Thompson of Pennsylvania, Mr. Tiffany, Mr. Timmons, Mr. Torres of New York, Mr. Tran, Mr. Turner of Ohio, Mr. Turner of Texas, Mr. Valadao, Mr. Van Drew, Ms. Van Duyne, Mr. Van Orden, Mr. Vargas, Mr. Veasey, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Weber of Texas, Mr. Webster of Florida, Mr. Westerman, Mr. Wilson of South Carolina, Mr. Yakym, and Mr. Davis of Illinois) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
Expressing support for the Iranian people’s desires for a democratic, secular, and nonnuclear Republic of Iran, and condemning the Iranian regime’s terrorism, regional proxy war, internal suppression, and for other purposes.
Whereas the developments over the past year have left no doubt that the source of terrorism and warmongering in the Middle East region is the theocratic Islamic Republic of Iran;
Whereas the ruling theocratic Islamic Republic of Iran has acted as a source of terrorism and regional conflict over the past four decades to ensure its survival, severely obstructing peace in the Middle East, and has been a central cause of the regional conflict occurring since October 2023 due to its fueling of weapons, missiles, and drones to its proxies and targeting of ships and free trade in the Red Sea and American forces in the region;
Whereas there has been support from a bipartisan majority of House members for H. Res. 374 in the 116th Congress, H. Res. 118 in the 117th Congress, as well as H. Res. 100 and H. Res. 1148 in the 118th Congress;
Whereas the Iranian regime has repeatedly and increasingly violated its commitments under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and defied the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding its nuclear programs, and has expanded its stockpile of near weapons grade of enriched uranium, a necessary component of building a nuclear bomb;
Whereas significant protests in Iran, particularly in 2018, 2019, and 2022, primarily led by women and youth, have firmly resisted the ruling theocracy, rejected monarchical dictatorship, and called for a republic based on democracy and pluralism;
Whereas women and girls in Iran have been the primary targets of repression by the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and thus, the main elements of protests against this misogynistic regime that have chanted slogans against the regime and called for freedom, including Woman, Resistance, Freedom
in the streets of Iran;
Whereas the efforts of Western countries over the past 45 years to change the behavior of this regime have failed, and the ultimate solution to ending the Iranian regime’s threats is the establishment of a secular, democratic, and pluralistic republic by the Iranian people and resistance;
Whereas in the first four months of Masoud Pezeshkian’s presidency, over 500 prisoners, including political prisoners and at least 17 women, have been executed, some publicly, and hand amputations by the Judiciary has increased;
Whereas the Iranian regime has arbitrarily and brutally suppressed ethnic and religious minorities, including Iranian Kurds, Baluchis, Arabs, Christians, Jews, Baha’is, Zoroastrians, and even Sunni Muslims, and has deprived them of their fundamental human rights, often culminating in executions;
Whereas the Iranian people have been deprived of their fundamental freedoms, for which reason they oppose any form of authoritarian rule, reject monarchic dictatorship and religious tyranny, as evident in their protest slogans, and seek to determine their destiny, based on their vote, as the sole criteria for political legitimacy;
Whereas Western nations should stand on the side of the people of Iran by holding the regime accountable for repression, terrorism, and rogue behavior and by supporting the Iranian people as they seek change;
Whereas, in 2023, the Iranian regime started sham trials in absentia of some 104 veteran members of the Iranian opposition, who are primarily based in Europe, including in France and Albania, to justify terrorist plots against them, and continues to target Iranian dissidents abroad;
Whereas over 4,000 parliamentarians worldwide, including 243 bipartisan House members in Congress, the majority of 33 legislative assemblies, mostly in Europe, and over 130 former world leaders and 80 Nobel laureates have supported Mrs. Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan for the Future of Iran that calls for universal right to vote, free elections, a market economy, and separation of religion and state, and advocates gender, religious, and ethnic equality, a foreign policy based on peaceful coexistence, peace in the Middle East, and a nonnuclear Republic of Iran;
Whereas Mrs. Rajavi’s roadmap for the process of change in Iran, based on the demands of the protesters in nationwide demonstrations in Iran, was presented on November 20, 2024, in the European Parliament, providing concrete and feasible steps for regime change by the people of Iran and democratic process for transferring power to the people;
Whereas the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, in his July 2024 report, highlighted the execution of tens of thousands
of political prisoners in the 1980s and during the 1988 massacre (up to 30,000) and emphasized, The Special Rapporteur notes that the
and that atrocity crimes
as reported—which took place all across Iran—represent the commission of the worst and the most egregious human rights abuses of our living memory whereby high-ranking state officials connived, conspired, and actively engaged to plan, order and commit crimes against humanity against the nationals of their own state,an overwhelming majority of the executed prisoners were members and sympathizers of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
;
Whereas over 900 women and men of Ashraf 3 in Albania are former political prisoners who witnessed prison crimes of the Iranian regime, and many of them are witnesses of the 1988 massacre and other political killings in Iran, who must be fully protected for potential testimonies before any international courts investigating the killings in Iran;
Whereas, in an April 19, 2016, letter to a European Parliament Vice President, the Prime Minister of Albania wrote, Albania is fully engaged and committed to ensure for the Iranian refugees all rights stipulated in the Geneva Convention 1951, in the European Human Rights Convention and in the whole international legislation
;
Whereas the right to self-determination constitutes an inherent and inalienable right of all peoples, forming a cornerstone of international law, including the Charter of the United Nations (1945), which underscores the principles of self-determination; and
Whereas the Declaration of Independence of the United States emphasizes, whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government
, and that when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security
; Now, therefore, be it
Sec.
That the House of Representatives—
(1)
unequivocally condemns the Iranian regime’s warmongering in the Middle East, which is a major source of terrorism and regional instability and calls for its end;
(2)
affirms that addressing the call of Iranian protesters for fundamental changes within Iran contributes to peaceful coexistence among neighboring nations and enhances regional and global security;
(3)
acknowledges and upholds the Iranian people’s inherent right to determine their political future, as articulated in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
(4)
calls for holding the Iranian regime and its leaders accountable for their crimes through the continued imposition of sanctions and calls for supporting the Iranian opposition and the Ten-Point Plan for the Future of Iran, which aligns with democratic values and ensures a democratic, secular, peaceful, and nonnuclear republic for the future of Iran;
(5)
urges the free world, given that the people of Iran have been deprived of all their fundamental rights and political paths for change within the framework of international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to recognize the rights of the Iranian people, the protesters, and the Resistance Units to confront the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and repressive forces to bring about change; and
(6)
calls on the United States Government, in cooperation with our ally Albania, to ensure the full protection of the Iranian political refugees in Ashraf 3 in Albania against the Iranian regime’s continued efforts to target dissidents abroad and for them to benefit from all rights stipulated in the Geneva Convention 1951 and the European Convention on Human Rights, including the right to life, liberty, and security, and protection of property, as well as freedom of expression and assembly.