NCRI – US Senator Ted Cruz has written to President Barack Obama thanking him for signing the legislation denying visas to United Nations ambassadors who are known terrorists.
In a letter in last week’s Politico magazine, the Texas Republican was referred to the Iranian regime’s recent nominee Hamid Aboutalebi, who was a member of the group that held 52 Americans hostage after seizing the US Embassy in Iran in 1979.
Mr. Cruz called the law an ‘unequivocal, bipartisan message that we will not tolerate the ongoing campaign of insult and antagonism’ from the Iranian regime.
He wrote: “Nominating Aboutalebi to be UN envoy is only the most recent in a long series of hostile actions proving that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime remains America’s enemy. This pattern began with the holding of 52 Americans for 444 days from 1979 to 1981, but it did not end there. It extends to Iranian complicity in the terrorist attacks on our armed forces in Beirut in 1983 and Saudi Arabia in 1996, as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last decade.
“Iran’s state sponsorship of terrorism has been accompanied by a drumbeat of vicious rhetoric by Iranian leaders against the United States and our allies, in which America features as the Great Satan and Israel as the Little Satan — both of whom would, in Khamenei’s ideal world, cease to exist.
“And all the while, there have been additional provocations, including the ongoing detention of three American citizens, Pastor Saeed Abedini, Amir Hekmati and Robert Levinson. Aboutalebi’s nomination is just the latest outrage.
“Regardless of their periodic promises of moderation, we must keep this pattern of hostility firmly in mind in any engagement with Iran’s leaders. They have been explicit in their goal: to persuade the world to relax its economic sanctions without interrupting their pursuit of a nuclear weapon. Just this week, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said, ‘We will witness the sanctions shattering in the coming months’.”
Mr Cruz said the bill was a first step to making it clear to Iran that if they wish to have better relations with the West, they should not nominate a 1979 hostage taker to be their representative at the UN.
He added: “Iran’s leaders may well try to challenge the denial of Aboutalebi’s visa, but this bill removes any ambiguity that might be the grounds for such a challenge and defines the grounds for denial. The rule of law matters, and this bill provides a clear legal basis for not allowing acknowledged terrorists to live in Manhattan with diplomatic immunity.”
