Bipartisan House Majority Defies Veto Threat, Passes Meehan Iran Sanctions Bill

Press Release

A bipartisan majority of the House today passed U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan's bill to require Iran pay the victims of its terrorism the damages they are owed before U.S. sanctions can be lifted as part of the recent nuclear arms agreement.

"Let's today vote as one House," Meehan asked his colleagues on the House floor, "to say we will put Robert Stethem and the many victims of Iran's terrorism before the criminals who conspired to kill them."

"The bill before us today presents a different but related question: should Iran receive United States sanctions relief before it pays the victims of its terrorism all of what U.S. courts say those victims are owed?

"When we say terrorism, what are we talking about? We're talking about Iranian-backed assassinations and bombings and attacks across the time zones -- from Paris to Jerusalem to New York to Beirut to East Africa to Buenos Aires.

"I say no, not one cent.

"These victims are U.S. citizens -- husbands and wives and brothers and sisters and children who hail from across this nation. They were killed in hijackings and suicide attacks and bombings -- of buses and planes and buildings and embassies‎ and shopping malls and pizza parlors.

"I sat yesterday with Ken Stethem, the brother of Robert Stethem, a United States Navy diver, who was executed in Beirut on TWA Flight 847 ‎after Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists hijacked it. Petty Officer Stethem's lifeless body was left on the tarmac in Beirut, and now rests in honor across the Potomac in Arlington.

"His brother Ken, himself a retired Navy SEAL, said to me yesterday, "if the president doesn't take the opportunity and Congress doesn't take the opportunity to hold Iran accountable for their terrorist acts now, I have to ask ... when will they?'

"Let's today vote as one House to say we will put Robert Stethem and the many victims of Iran's terrorism before the criminals who conspired to kill them.

"Until they pay these victims what they're owed, let's say no to Iran, not one cent."

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