Rep Brad Sherman supports Iran protests

Bipartisan members of congress joined Iranian Americans from across the U.S. at a House Briefing titled,” Iran Uprising: The Nation Rises for Freedom,” and expressed support for ongoing protests in Iran urged the international community to hold Iranian regime accountable for indiscriminate and deadly use of force.

In his remarks Rep Brad Sherman (D-CA) of the House Foreign Affairs Committee applauded Iranian people for rising against religious tyranny and noted specially, his longstanding support for Iranian resistance leaders now living in Albania.

Rep Brad Sherman: It’s good to be with old friends. Thank you. I’m Brad Sherman from California’s best-named city, Sherman Oaks. For 23 years, I’ve served on the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives.

Rep Brad Sherman added: For 23 years, I have fought for a democratic Iran. The nation that has played such an incredible role in world history deserves a government worthy of its people. It deserves a government chosen by its people. And all over the nation of Iran, people are rising up and demanding democracy for Iran.

Now, they may have started because they doubled gasoline prices. Tripled gasoline prices! Only a government that has no connection to its own people would wake up one day and triple gasoline prices with no notice, with no discussion, with nothing that you expect from a democracy.

Rep Brad Sherman highlighted: I also want to commend Madame Rajavi for her advocacy for democracy and her advocacy for women’s rights and human rights. This May, I joined my colleagues, I was the lead Democrat in introducing House Resolution 374 which supports the people of Iran’s right to free expression and condemns the Iranian regime’s crackdown on legitimate protest.

Now that this regime has killed over a thousand of its own people, we need to pass this resolution and we need to do everything we can to say no to the Islamic Republic. I also want to urge the president to actually enforce the laws we have passed that prevent the export of censorship technology to Iran and the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions and Accountability Act provides those very limitations.

 I could go on, but many of you know this very well. Many of you have heard me speak many times. I’ve also led Congressional efforts to protect Iran opposition members outside Iran. Last summer, I led a letter to the Albanian prime minister with seven of our colleagues urging protections of the members of the MEK living in that company. We have seen the all of a sudden Iran has a big embassy. And why is that?

So, I look forward to working with you and I also, speaking of democracy, want to commend you for being involved in the American political process. American citizenship is not just a privilege, it is a responsibility. And when you have a particular interest and a background and a knowledge of how our foreign policy ought to operate, you have a responsibility to get active in your own communities, particularly California and to be active here in Washington, D.C. So, I’m Brad Sherman, thank you very much.