Congress Passes Resolution on Iranian Elections

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill (H.Res. 560) which “condemns the ongoing violence against demonstrators by the Government of Iran and pro-government militias, as well as the ongoing government suppression of independent electronic communication.”

The resolution, which was passed by a vote of  405-1, has been the source of some degree of controversy recently, with the White House reportedly intervening to tone down some of the harsher language in earlier drafts. Administration officials worried that overly-aggressive language might give the Iranian government cause to pull the U.S. into its current electoral crisis.

The one dissenting vote came from Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) who made the following statement concerning his vote:

“Of course I do not support attempts by foreign governments to suppress the democratic aspirations of their people, but when is the last time we condemned Saudi Arabia or Egypt or the many other countries where unlike in Iran there is no opportunity to exercise any substantial vote on political leadership? It seems our criticism is selective and applied when there are political points to be made. I have admired President Obama‘s cautious approach to the situation in Iran and I would have preferred that we in the House had acted similarly.”