[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15522]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      IRANIAN POLITICAL OPPRESSION

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. ERIC CANTOR

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 17, 2009

  Mr. CANTOR. Madam Speaker, I rise today in sympathy with the victims 
of Iranian political oppression who have been injured or killed 
protesting the outcome of their election.
  Yet regardless of whether Ahmadinejad or Mousavi wins, we must not 
maintain any illusions about where true power in Iran rests.
  That would be in the hands of the Islamic Republic's clerical regime, 
extremists determined to advance Iran's nuclear program and use 
terrorism to bully other states in the region.
  Much of the regime's most egregious activities are done in the dark, 
hidden from the world's eyes and thus escaping media attention. The 
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps quietly funnels weapons and funding 
into terrorists groups from Iraq to Afghanistan to Lebanon to Gaza. 
Iranian centrifuges enrich uranium at nuclear plants often hidden from 
weapons inspectors. And terrorist groups make voyages to Iran to 
receive training at unspecified locations.
  But this week the true colors of the Iranian regime are on broad 
display. With the whole world watching, the Iranian regime has been 
embarrassed--called to account seemingly for the first time. This is an 
opportunity we cannot squander. Let us rally the world around the 
Iranian people. Let us use this opening to show the international 
community how dangerous the Iranian regime is--and why a nuclear Iran 
is flatly unacceptable.
  Regrettably, the President and Democratic leadership in congress are 
failing to respond to the growing threat a nuclear Iran poses to the 
world.
  Today we call on President Obama to immediately condemn the violence 
the Iranian regime is perpetrating against its citizens. We call on the 
Speaker to immediately bring to the floor and consider the Iran 
Petroleum Sanctions Act. The bipartisan bill, sponsored by Chairman 
Berman and Ranking Member Ros-Lehtinen, would impose sanctions on the 
radical Iranian regime while they continue to seek nuclear weapons and 
destabilize the Middle East.

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