Written by\u00a0Mohammad Sadat Khansari<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a019 December 2019.<\/em><\/p>\n The United States House of Representatives\u00a0Foreign Affairs Committee\u00a0on Wednesday\u00a0unanimously\u00a0passed House Resolution 752 in support of the recent\u00a0nationwide Iran protests<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ms. Soona Samsami, the U.S. Representative of\u00a0the National Council of Resistance of Iran<\/a>\u00a0(NCRI-US<\/a>), welcomed the unanimous passing of\u202fH.Res.752<\/a>\u202fentitled \u201cSupporting the rights of the people of Iran to free expression, condemning the Iranian regime for its\u00a0crackdown on legitimate protests<\/a>, and for other purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThis timely bipartisan resolution sends an unequivocal and powerful message to the people of Iran that U.S. Congress fully supports them in their nationwide uprising for a free Iran and that it strongly condemns the massacre perpetrated by the Iranian regime in November,\u201d Ms. Samsami said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis timely bipartisan resolution sends an unequivocal & powerful message to the people of Iran that US Congress fully supports them in their nationwide uprising for a #FreeIran<\/a> & that it strongly condemns the massacre perpetrated by the regime in Nov,\u201d NCRI-US Rep. S. Samsami.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The bi-partisan House Foreign Affairs Committee resolution was amended and passed not long after the onset of the November uprising which spread to 191 cities in all of Iran\u2019s 31 provinces. Following the regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei\u2019s shoot-to-kill order, the security forces massacred more than 1,500 protesters – 520 of whom have been identified so far by the\u00a0People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI)<\/a>, otherwise known as the\u00a0Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK)<\/a>. Nevertheless, this uprising, \u201cthe most significant anti-government protests in Iran since June 2009,\u201d shook the religious dictatorship to its foundations and is a major step towards its eventual downfall. \u201cThe uprising\u2019s gains are irreversible; no matter how deep or wide the state suppression,\u201d NCRI U.S. Representative said.<\/p>\n The bipartisan resolution notes that the regime’s security forces \u201chave used lethal force\u201d and \u201ckilled hundreds of people\u201d in what it described as \u201cthe popular protests against the Iranian regime.\u201d The resolution notes that \u201creports indicate that Iranian Government authorities have, in many instances, refused to return victims\u2019 bodies to their families and that security forces have removed bodies from morgues and transferred them to unknown locations.\u201d <\/p>\n The United Nations Security Council must declare the November massacre, one of the most horrific crimes of the 21st century, as a crime against humanity so that the regime\u2019s leaders are brought to justice #IranProtests<\/a> #Iran<\/a><\/p>\n \u201d The Iranian Resistance \u201cendorses the Resolution which \u2018urges the Administration to work to convene emergency sessions of the United Nations Security Council and the United Nations Human Rights Council to condemn the ongoing human rights violations perpetrated by the Iranian regime and establish a mechanism by which the Security Council can monitor such violations,\u2019\u201d Ms. Samsami stressed.<\/p>\n Ms. Samsami added that Khamenei and his president Hassan Rouhani must be held accountable for crimes against humanity and a fact-finding mission must be sent to Iran to evaluate the scope of the crimes and examine the cases of those killed, wounded, or detained. The Resolution points out that \u201cthe Iranian regime was implicated in a March 2018 plot in Albania and June 2018 plot in France against Iranian opposition activists.\u201d Ms. Samsami added that a regime\u2019s senior diplomat is in jail in Belgium for masterminding the plot to bomb the annual 100,000-strong \u2018Iran Freedom\u2019 gathering of the Iranian Resistance, as are two of the regime\u2019s intelligence agents in the U.S. for spying on officials of the\u00a0NCRI<\/a>. The NCRI\u2019s U.S. Representative welcomed the bipartisan initiative\u2019s standing with the people of Iran who are engaged in legitimate protests against an \u201coppressive, corrupt regime\u201d and its condemnation of the \u201cregime\u2019s serious human rights abuses against the Iranian people, significant corruption, and destabilizing activities abroad,\u201d stating that \u201cthe time has come for the world to recognize the right of the Iranian people to change the repressive regime and establish a democratic, pluralistic and non-nuclear republic based on the separation of religion and state.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nThe Resolution also notes that \u201cin 1988, the Iranian regime carrying out the barbaric mass executions of thousands of political prisoners by hanging and firing squad for refusing to renounce their political affiliations and in some cases for possessing political reading material, including prisoners of conscience, teenagers, and pregnant women.\u201d Some 30,000 political prisoners, majority of them affiliated with the\u00a0Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK)<\/a>, were executed during the 1988 massacre, described as \u201ca clear case of crimes against humanity\u201d by Amnesty International.
\nMs. Samsami added: \u201cThe\u00a0NCRI<\/a>\u2019s President-elect, Mrs.\u00a0Maryam Rajavi<\/a>, has repeatedly underscored that the slaughter of protesters in November was a manifest case of a crime against humanity and, therefore, the United Nations Security Council must take urgent action to halt the killings and suppression and secure the release of those arrested.<\/p>\n![\"View](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/EMGcAniXsAwHhhf?format=png&name=small\")
\nThe Resolution underscores the fact that implementation of \u201ca near-total shutdown of internet services, stopping nearly all means of online communications for people inside Iran\u201d was intended \u201cto preclude the sharing of images and videos of deadly violence being used by security forces.\u201d The resolution \u201cencourages the Administration to provide assistance to the Iranian people to have free and uninterrupted access to the Internet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nLauding the Resolutions\u2019 support for \u201cthe right of Iranian dissidents to assemble, without fear of persecution and violence, whether in Iran or internationally,\u201d Ms. Samsami called for increased vigilance regarding the regime\u2019s terrorist plots against Iranian dissidents, including those in Europe and the United States.
\nReferring to the Resolution\u2019s statement that \u201cseveral laws provide authorities to designate and sanction elements of the Iranian regime involved in significant corruption or serious human rights abuses,\u201d Samsami said that these Iranian regime\u2019s officials must be sanctioned for their crimes and brought to justice by international tribunals. Referring to a new book by the NCRI-US,\u202fUprising Shakes Iran Regime\u2019s Foundations<\/a>, she said: \u201cwe have identified 92 senior officials of the Iranian regime involved in the November 2019 suppression of the uprising in Iran; they all need to be sanctioned by the U.S. Government.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"View](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/EMGgqh_WsAEOuzj?format=jpg&name=small\")