| (WASHINGTON) – U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, commented today on the 30th anniversary of the Iranian hostage crisis, where 52 United States citizens were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981. Statement of Ros-Lehtinen:
“Thirty years ago today, our nation was transformed as we learned that Iranian radicals, including one believed to be Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had seized our embassy and taken Americans hostage. These brave Americans endured unspeakable abuse during their captivity.
“Yet, as the Iranian regime is today offered all kinds of incentives and political legitimacy over its nuclear program, the former hostages receive no support from the U.S. Government in their efforts to hold Iran accountable. I am introducing legislation today to help correct this injustice.
“Thirty years have come and gone, but the Iranian tiger has failed to change its stripes.
“It is time for crippling sanctions against the Iranian regime to bring Tehran’s thirty-year love affair with violent extremism to a long-overdue end.”
Note: Ros-Lehtinen introduced legislation to remove the legal and political hurdles to allow the Iran hostages to bring claims against the Iranian regime and compensate the victims from a number of blocked Iranian accounts. Ros-Lehtinen also successfully included language in the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act (H.R. 2194) recently considered by the Committee on Foreign Affairs, which calls on the Secretary of State to make every effort to assist the victims of the 1979-1981 hostage crisis in their cases against the Iranian regime.
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