[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 87 (Monday, May 20, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3763-S3764]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                  Iran

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, last night, Iran confirmed that its 
President and Foreign Minister died in a helicopter crash. The 
condolences from sympathetic regimes were swift. The PRC declared that 
the Chinese people had ``lost a good friend.'' The Kremlin mourned ``a 
reliable partner.'' And Prime Minister Orban of Hungary, whose 
government has pursued deeper trade relations with Tehran, in spite of 
Western sanctions, offered his ``thoughts and prayers.''
  Well, I, too, would like to extend my condolences to the people of 
Iran--for their long suffering under the brutal, theocratic rule of the 
Islamic Republic. I suspect a great many Iranians would rather Western 
admirers stop lionizing a man known as the ``Butcher of Tehran'' for 
executing political prisoners. They might prefer that foreign leaders 
not further legitimize the regime that actively represses all of them.
  In the meantime, conjecture about key players in the chain of 
succession and the relative strength of reform and hardline elements 
has already begun in earnest. To focus on this sort of speculation is 
to miss something more fundamental about the regime in Tehran, 
something I warned the Biden administration about when President Raisi 
was installed through a customary sham

[[Page S3764]]

election 3 years ago: We should remember the President of Iran is just 
a figurehead. The real power rests with the aptly named Supreme Leader 
and the State institutions he controls.
  Supposed ``reformers'' and ``moderates,'' along with hard-liners, 
have come and gone from Iran's Presidency without fundamentally 
changing how Tehran operates at home or abroad. Meanwhile, the regime's 
revolutionary orthodoxy has endured for decades, preserved by the 
clerical establishment and the IRGC.
  Iran's leaders, its diplomats, and its enablers abroad can say 
anything they want about the regime's character and outlook, but 
actions speak far louder than words. And, for years, Tehran has moved 
steadily in just one direction: toward more terrorist violence abroad 
and more repression at home.
  And no matter who Iran's President has been, the regime in Tehran has 
continued to engage in rampant proliferation of ballistic missiles, 
cruise missiles, and UAVs while making steady progress toward nuclear 
weapons capabilities.
  So I would also like to extend my condolences to Iran's neighbors who 
still live under the constant threat of a regime that practices what it 
preaches: Death to Israel, death to America, war on international 
commerce, and chaos across the Middle East.
  The untimely death of the President of Iran does not change the 
underlying threats this regime poses to its own citizens, to its 
region, and to the free world. These threats continue to demand our 
collective attention.