Islamic Republic Does Not Represent Iranians - US Senators

Several US senators have spoken out against the Islamic Republic’s crackdown on dissent and hailing the idea of political sponsorship for Iranian detained protesters. 

Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio told Iran International's Arash Aalaei that “the regime in Tehran feels threatened by peaceful protesters...I think what's the most interesting to see is some clerical dissension.”

Iranians have begun to express the belief that their society should be more open, more transparent, and people have a right to express themselves, he said. 

Referring to American lawmakers taking political sponsorship of Iranian political prisoners like their German and Austrian counterparts, Rubio welcomed the idea calling it “innovative.”

South Dakota Republican Senator Mike Rounds told us that the extent of the crackdown on peaceful protests in Iran is "unfortunate, but when you have this type of regime which clearly doesn't respect life and who wants to maintain power at any cost you have this type of an outcome. It's unfortunate, and the people of Iran deserve better."

Echoing similar remarks, Texas Republican John Cornyn also expressed concern over the crackdowns on peaceful protesters in Iran, saying, “It's not a free country, it's a theocracy. We have been doing as much as we can to support Iranian people against this sort of intolerable backlash."

Louisiana’s Republican Senator Bill Cassidy censured the Iranian regime for “killing its own people,” Saying, “We could start with the young woman who was abused in prison to the point where she died. And now we have sights of them shooting with high-power weapons.”

“The regime has lost its legitimacy and it's only being held in force by that oppression. And there's a little bit of an irony: the regime that took the place after a revolution in which the Shah was felt to be no longer a representative of his people, now no longer represents the people,” he added. 

He also criticized President Joe Biden for his remarks earlier in the day about not announcing the death of the 2015 nuclear deal. 

In a video clip, posted in social media Tuesday, Biden apparently at a campaign walk-about during November’s Congressional elections is asked why he does announce the 2015 nuclear agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) dead, the president clearly replies: “It is dead, but we’re not going to announce it.”

Cassidy said that “Iran has been assassinating people in Europe... So I think there needs to be a hard line not against the Iranian people who are great and incredible people who go back to the Persians and the Medes, but against a government which has ceased to represent those people, and instead has become a force of repression.”