US Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell Wednesday blasted Iran’s government’s plot to kidnap US citizen, journalist, and human rights activist Masih Alinejad.

Speaking on the Senate Floor, McConnell said that “for years, Alinejad has made a habit of getting under the mullahs’ skin. She’s called out injustices and organized protests like ‘White Wednesdays,’ when women across Iran would challenge their nation’s strict dress code.”

He likened the plot to Tehran’s attempt to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States in a crowded Washington, DC restaurant, which the US government revealed to the world in 2011. But McConnell lamented that except for one accomplice, most of the other culprits “won’t see the inside of a courtroom anytime soon.” He called for “non-judicial steps to impose consequences on the Islamic Republic” as this would be the only way to deter the Iranian government from attempting such a scheme again.

The US Senate Republican leader warned that as Iran’s proxies and partners run rampant in the Middle East, particularly targeting US interests and facilities in Iraq, “the Biden administration appears keen to follow a familiar playbook of its own. Inexplicably, the White House’s response to Iran’s latest troublemaking has been to consider lifting sanctions and offering new concessions to produce a new nuclear deal. Iran just tried to kidnap an American. This is not the occasion to desperately reward bad behavior.”

Source » iranintl