| (WASHINGTON) – U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, will speak later today on the House Floor in support of a resolution recognizing the 30th anniversary of the Iranian hostage crisis, where 52 United States citizens were held captive from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981. Statement by Ros-Lehtinen:
“Thirty years ago, Iranian militants overran the United States Embassy in Tehran and took innocent Americans hostage – with 52 of these brave Americans held for 444 days.
“U.S. diplomats, embassy staff, and military personnel were bound and blindfolded; humiliated and paraded in front of news cameras by their captors.
“They endured unspeakable suffering and abuse for nearly 15 months in captivity.
“Since the capture of the United States Embassy in Tehran 30 years ago and the ensuing hostage crisis, Iran has increasingly viewed terrorism as a tool to achieve its ideological and strategic aims, which include exporting the revolution, supporting militant Islamist extremist organizations, attacking Israel, and destabilizing regional governments.
“Yet, successive U.S. administrations have failed to properly recognize and confront the totality of the Iranian threat – from its history of supporting violent Islamist extremists, to its nuclear weapons program, to its unconventional weapons and ballistic missile development.
“In response, the United States must impose on the Iranian regime a cost so high – a cost that includes immediate, comprehensive, tough economic sanctions, while denying the regime all political and diplomatic legitimacy – that it threatens the regime’s survival and compels it to change its course.”
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