Senator Tom Daschle attended a demonstration of the Iranian resistance in New York on the same day the mullahs’ president, Rouhani was speaking at the UNGA. Senator Daschle began by thanking all those who braved the terrible weather to take part in the demonstration.
He said: “One of my favorite presidents, Teddy Roosevelt once said that one of the greatest joys of life is to work hard at work worth doing, I know of no group that is working harder at work worth doing than you and for that we are very grateful, thank you all very much.
There is a wide consensus that your work involves three primary objectives in this very transformational time. Greater respect and more freedom for the people of Iran and human rights in general all through the country, insuring a safer and more stable region by reducing the risk of further nuclear proliferation, and providing safety and security with a brighter future for Iranian families now living in camp liberty, all three of those goals need to be realized and you are here to say that with an emphases that I think deserve recommendation.
I share your deep `concern about the extraordinary deterioration of human rights in Iran. No one in this country should ignore the extremely concerning increase of the number of the executions reported last year to be now near 900. That includes many hanging of women all through the country. All of us should also be troubled by the denial of fundamental human rights for 8 to 10 million Sunnis. Equally troubling is the increasingly dangerous assertion of arms and personal in Syria and Iraq and in Lebanon.
How deeply disappointed they must be of a lack of progress and the increase state of repression now.
A troubling metaphor for the circumstance in Iran occurred in May of this year when six Iranian youth were arrested for making a dance video of the song “HAPPY”. It increasingly appears that government has grown in paranoid of the level of unrest; it could be driven in part out of the fear of the upheaval both politically and organizationally with the eventual passing of the supreme leader.
The second objective is to insure a safer and more stable region by reducing the risk of the further proliferation and that ought to be the goal shared by everyone.
A nuclear armed Iran would become even more assertive than it is now, in the region and around the globe. There is little doubt that it would trigger a nuclear arms’ race with other countries in the region with massive new preformation of nuclear armaments and a higher possibility of their use.
The joint plan of action of November 24 has become the subject of enormous debate and disagreement. Should the talks fail there is virtually no disagreement about the use of additional sanctions with the intent of increasing economic pressure on the government of Iran.
The final objective is to insure the safety and security and a brighter future for the people now living in a prison like environment in camp liberty. It is a commitment made by the United States government and we should keep it.
The atrocities committed by the Maliki government and unwillingness of the rest of the world to support and defend of the families living there is a troubling editorial and global response to the gross violations of the human rights.
The resent halt in August to the pumping of the water when the temperatures exceed 115 degrees is another horrific example of the extent to which circumstances there continue to deteriorate.
While Maliki is no longer in power, there are few signs of any relief with the new government. The crisis demands far greater attention and lasting resolution. More U.S. leadership here is the only way we will ever get it done.
United States and the global community must do more to support meaningful political reform with in the country.
we must bring about additional pressure to bear on Iran to terminate its efforts to build a nuclear arsenal and trigger even more proliferation in the region and we must live up to our obligations to protect and support those people in and out of Iran who have been the victim of growing abuse of their basic human rights.
This is hard work, but Roosevelt was right in this transformational time, it is worth doing. Thank you all very much for being here this afternoon.”