WASHINGTON – Ahead of Iran’s elections tomorrow, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today delivered a speech on the Senate floor reminding the Administration, Congressional colleagues, and the American people that merely holding elections does not mean Iran’s revolutionary regime is reforming in any meaningful way. The people of Iran may be voting for members of the Parliament and the Assembly of Experts tomorrow, but most moderate, reform-minded candidates have already been disqualified and will not appear on the ballot.
Senator Coons’ full remarks below:
Mr. President, tomorrow the people of Iran will go to the polls and elect a so-called Assembly of experts, which is the body that will eventually choose the successor to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
Last December Secretary of State John Kerry cautioned that “having an election does not make a democracy.” I think his words are equally fitting this week.
Iran’s elections, in truth, are neither free nor fair. Iran is not a democracy. Power brokers in Iran have already rigged these elections, and the results -- and even the results of a potential run-off in April – will really not tell us much we don’t already know about the Iranian regime or its foreign policy objectives in the Middle East.
Some observers do hope that moderate voices will make some progress in Iran, and I agree that that is good to hope for.
But I remain deeply skeptical. In many ways, tomorrow’s elections are nothing more than a rubber stamp because an unelected Guardian Council -- which vets all candidates for office -- has already prevented most moderates from even running.
Let me explain. Aspiring candidates for Iran’s national parliament and the Assembly of Experts must be approved by the unelected Guardian Council before they can appear on any ballot. Unless they make it through a multi-week vetting process -- unless they are deemed sufficiently loyal and conservative -- these aspiring candidates won’t get a chance to be candidates at all.
That’s why the candidate list for tomorrow's election has already told us more about Iran’s intentions than the election results will. A willingness to allow reform-minded or moderate Iranians to stand for election would have suggested some real hope for genuine reform -- for real change -- in the Iranian regime.
Sadly, the disqualification of both female and reformist candidates indicates that Iran instead is doubling down on its decision to avoid long-awaited and much-needed democratic reforms and instead to continue to isolate itself from broader membership in the international community.
Sixteen women applied to run to serve on the Assembly of Experts. All were prohibited from running.
3,000 reform-minded candidates sought to run for the Iranian parliament. Only one percent of those 3,000 were approved.
Even Hassan Khomeini -- the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Republic of Iran -- was rejected as a candidate for being too moderate.
These disqualifications reflect the regime’s rejection of basic democratic norms -- and serve as a reminder of the urgency with which we have to continue to scrutinize Iran’s behavior.
Tomorrow’s elections won't change Iran’s aggressive behavior in the region or transform the political power structure within the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is still dominated by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Despite what some may hope, the Supreme Leader seems unwilling to allow even a modicum of dissent inside Iran.
These elections are likely nothing more than a guise to give the international community the impression that Iranians have a real voice in choosing their elected officials. While we should hope for future moderation, we should expect the status quo because at its core, Iran remains a revolutionary regime that supports terrorism as a central tool of its national foreign policy. U.S. policymakers have to remain clear-eyed about that reality as we seek to effectively and aggressively enforce the nuclear deal and push back against Iranian aggression in the region.
Mr. President, I urge my colleagues, the Administration, and the American people to pay close attention not just to tomorrow's Iranian elections, but to Iran’s actions in the weeks, months, and years to come.
I commend the Administration for one action it took this week. It indicted four individuals who violated previously existing U.S. sanctions against Iran. This decision sends another important signal that, despite the nuclear deal, sanctions that remain on the books, and companies who violate them remain a significant barrier, and that companies should not rush to do business with Iran.
Only by continuing to enforce existing sanctions -- only by continuing to hold Iran to its commitments in the nuclear agreement -- only by pushing back against Iran’s support for terrorist proxies, its human rights abuses, and its illegal ballistic missile tests -- will we demonstrate that we're serious about holding the regime accountable for its actions.
Only by viewing Iran through the right lens -- a lens of wariness and suspicion, not trust -- can we continue to protect our national security and the safety of our regional allies, especially Israel.
A nuclear deal with a nation like Iran does not make that regime our ally or our friend, and having an election does not make a democracy.
But it does make a statement.