Back to Brief on Iran
WASHINGTON—Congressional opponents of diplomatic openings to fundamentalist Iran appealed to the Clinton administration Wednesday to refrain from any goodwill gestures during next week's visit to the United Nations by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.
"For all the talk that Mr. Khatami is a 'moderate,' we have seen no actions to back that up," Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., told a news conference.
Ackerman said a bipartisan statement he has been circulating urging continued toughness toward Iran has been signed by 220 House members, a majority of the 435-member chamber.
"Experience has shown us time and again that the most effective policy to contain this rogue regime is to continue to deny Iran any concessions," the statement says.
Khatami's American critics say human rights abuses have continued unabated, and Iran has accelerated its quest for weapons of mass destruction and continues to support terrorism.
"While the administration views Khatami as a more moderate force, actions speak louder than words. Since Khatami took office, no fundamental change has taken place in Iran," said Rep. Bob Menendez, D-N.J.
"It would be very inappropriate for the Clinton administration to entertain any contacts with ... Khatami while he is in the United States," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla. "We must begin building bridges with the Iranian people, not their ruthless rulers."
Soona Samsami, U.S. representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, told reporters, "Khatami whetted the appetite of the advocates of appeasement, ... but let's be realistic: Contrary to the expectations of the United States, the Tehran regime has not modified its terrorist and fundamentalist policies at all."
Iran Still 'Outlaw', The Washington Times, September 16
…The 220 members of Congress who signed a statement on Iran [calling for firm Washington policy on Tehran and support for the Iranian Resistance] are worried that the administration is trying to develop contacts with the Islamic fundamentalist mullahs who run the country.
"We are telling the administration that this is too delicate a situation for them to be playing politics with," said Rep. Gary Ackerman, New York Democrat and a sponsor of the statement. "Congress is watching."
"Tehran's cunning rulers must be held accountable for their outlaw behavior, and we believe it would seem foolish at this time for the United States to be seen as rewarding it," the statement says.
Mr. Ackerman said he and his colleagues also want the State Department to remove the People's Mojahedin, the main Iranian opposition group, from its list of terrorist organizations.
"We are dismayed they would put the only alternative to the mullahs on the list and make them [U.S.] approved targets of a terrorist regime," Mr. Ackerman told Embassy Row yesterday.
The statement notes that the Los
Angeles Times quoted an administration official as saying the resistance
was included on the list last year "as a goodwill gesture to Tehran and
its newly elected moderate president."
Members of U.S. Congress Back Iranian Resistance, Reuter, September 16
WASHINGTON—A majority of members of the U.S. House of Representatives said on Wednesday the main Iranian opposition group was a legitimate organization and should not be on the State Department's "terrorist" list.
A statement signed by 220 members of the House, released at a news conference on Wednesday, faulted the administration's policy, saying the best way to deal with the Iranian government was to deny it any concessions.
"It was not Congress's intent ... that a legitimate opposition to the Iranian regime be included within that particular list of terrorist groups," the statement said.
"This designation is indeed a wrong-headed approach, and appears to directly contradict at least the spirit of the anti-terrorist law, and we believe the decision should be reviewed immediately," it added.
The members of Congress, led by New York Democrat Gary Ackerman and Florida Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, said there was no sign that Iran was responding to U.S. overtures, despite the election of a new president last year.
Ackerman described the Tehran government as "a destructive, totalitarian and brutal regime, bent on keeping the Iranian people restricted and backward."