Washington, D.C. – House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) released the following statement on today’s parliamentary elections in Iran:

“President Obama bet the house on Iran becoming more moderate and responsible.  Yet, hours after the nuclear agreement’s implementation, the Iranian regime disqualified 2,967 of roughly 3,000 moderate candidates from running in parliamentary elections.  It twice violated U.N. resolutions to test ballistic missiles, fired rockets within 1,500 yards of the U.S.S. Truman, and seized ten American sailors—all while propping up the murderous Assad regime in Syria.  So much for a more responsible Iran.

“With access to $100 billion in unfrozen assets and sanctions wiped away, Iran is now the dominant country in the region.  And the Iranian Revolutionary Guards forces, responsible for brutally murdering innocent protestors during the 2009 elections, are only becoming more powerful. 

“Some candidates in today’s elections may be called moderates, but don’t be fooled.  The regime made sure voters were forced to choose, as some have said, ‘between hardliners or hard hardliners.’  It was a rigged game, and the Iranian people – and in turn U.S. national security interests – were destined to lose from the start.” 

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