NCPDA Statement
Contact: Nasser Rashidi
Dir. Tel: 202-487-6989
July 30, 2007
Encouraging Signs: Divestment from and Democracy for Iran
The United House of Representatives has begun debate on legislation requiring divestiture of current investments in Iran. Led by bipartisan group of representatives including Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, Subcommittee Chair, Brad Sherman, and ranking republican Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, U.S. Congress is acting more decisively to isolate the brutal regime in Iran. This is a positive development for the cause of democracy and human rights in Iran. By extension, the proposed legislation will also serve to enhance peace and security in the region.
The suffering Iranian people and democracy advocates across the globe, including NCPDA, have long called for similarly oriented policies towards the barbaric and expansionist regime in Iran. We believe in, and encourage comprehensive sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
As efforts to curb Iranian regime’s destructive power gain momentum, the National Coalition of Pro-Democracy Advocates reminds all policy makers of the centrality of democracy and Iranian people’s pivotal role in that regard. Accordingly, legislations requiring divestiture of financial investment in Iran must be expanded to include diplomatic, oil and weapons limitations on the mullahs.
Iranian regime is a particularly viscous violator of human rights and a 3 decades long suppressor of democracy. It is also an expansionist government, bent on exporting its perverted version of Islamic ideology. This regime will therefore continue to defy all international pressure, absent comprehensive sanctions and serious support for democracy movements in Iran. In this context, the key to our efforts must also include measures to decisively encourage democracy. This can only be done by relying on the Iranian people and their resistance against the extremist mullahs.
The National Coalition of Pro-Democracy Advocates views the proposed legislation requiring divestiture of investment in Iran as a positive step towards democracy and a necessary component of a comprehensive policy towards Iran. We encourage policy makers, NGOs and concerned citizens to support the voices of the Iranian people in this and other steps intended to confront Iran’s threat to global democracy.
