Today, September 16, marks the second anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s murder, which sparked the largest anti-government protests in the 45-year history of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In solidarity, the Iranian diaspora in the United States lobbied lawmakers to impose human rights abuse sanctions on...
Today, September 16, marks the second anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s murder, which sparked the largest anti-government protests in the 45-year history of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In solidarity, the Iranian diaspora in the United States lobbied lawmakers to impose human rights abuse sanctions on Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. The Mahsa Amini Human Rights and Security Accountability (MAHSA) Act passed both the House and Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support. President Joe Biden signed it into law in April but is now ignoring it.
Mr. Biden campaigned on a human rights-centered foreign policy. The MAHSA Act requires the executive branch to determine whether high-ranking officials of the Islamic Republic regime qualify for human rights sanctions under U.S. law. The law required the president to submit the first determination by July 23, 90 days after enactment. The administration is now eight weeks late in meeting this legal obligation.
This delay reflects a broader pattern in the administration's Iran policy. For the past three and a half years, President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have spoken tough on Iran, but such talk has been followed by inaction, symbolic designations, and lax enforcement of existing sanctions. The administration has announced sanctions against various Iranian entities, but these designations are often low-level officials or peripheral organizations with no assets and travel to the West. Meanwhile, the administration has agreed to billions of dollars in ransom for hostages, repeatedly extended sanctions waivers allowing the regime access to funds, and stopped enforcing oil sanctions.
Likewise, the Biden administration has repeatedly approved visas for those Iranian officials who are under U.S. sanctions to visit New York for meetings at the United Nations. With the Islamic Republic’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian due in Manhattan later this month for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, there is a chance his entourage will include former Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who is also under sanctions and accordingly should not be granted a visa.
Pressure on the regime in Iran has been easing since Mr. Biden assumed office. Iran’s oil exports sank to a low of 440,000 barrels per day in 2020 under the Trump administration’s maximum pressure sanctions campaign. But it reached 1.5 million barrels per day this year. Iran reportedly raked in $35.8 billion from these exports between March 2023 and 2024 alone. America and its European partners also allowed U.N. sanctions on Iran’s missiles exports to expire in 2023. Just this month, the U.S. government and its allies confirmed Iran’s transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine, an EU candidate country.
Four years of appeasement have failed to moderate the regime, to slow its nuclear program, and to curb its malign activity in the region and against the United States. Iran’s nuclear breakout time is under one week and its stockpile of 60% enriched uranium is up from 17.7kg in 2021 to 164.7kg today. Proxy attacks against U.S. forces peaked in 2023. The Islamic Republic continues to terrorize Jews and Arabs in the region and oppress Iranians at home without consequences.
Mr. Biden’s reluctance to enforce the MAHSA Act and punish the Islamic Republic for human rights or to curb its regional aggression exposes that these two issues are inherently intertwined when it comes to Iran. His administration has been explicit that its primary regional objective is to avoid escalation. To this effect, it is giving the regime a free pass on both human rights and security violations. And just like the appeasement approach has failed to curb the regime’s regional aggressions, the president’s disregard for this law is likewise worsening the human rights situation in Iran.
U.N. human rights experts recently voiced deep concern over a sharp increase in executions in Iran, with at least 81 people executed in August alone. This spike has increased the total number of executions in the country to over 400 in 2024, including 15 women.
The regime is taking advantage of turmoil in the region to arrest, torture, and execute protestors. Last month, Reza Rasaei, a 34 year old Iranian who was arrested in 2022 during the Mahsa Amini protests, was executed for the murder of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officer. But U.N. experts confirm that his conviction was based on a confession obtained through torture, and key evidence challenging his involvement was ignored by the court.
Mr. Rasaei was one of the more than 20,000 young Iranians arrested for protesting in 2022, when the regime’s security forces killed at least 550 more in the streets. Human rights experts say authorities in Iran have ramped up their repression as the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death approaches, and the regime’s repression playbook goes beyond arrests, executions, and torture. Between November 2022 and March 2023, an estimated 7,000 school children were poisoned throughout the country, with most victims being young girls.
Understandably, headlines often concern Iran’s malignant foreign policy, which the Islamic Republic has used its growing wealth to effect by reenergizing its security forces. But it is crucial to remember that the solidification of the security forces also means greater ability to terrorize the Iranian people.
By submitting the report to Congress, the administration will have to recognize that the regime is violating the rights of the Iranian people in such a way that would force Mr. Biden to impose sanctions on the Islamic Republic against Khamenei and his henchmen. This will expose the regime for its gross human rights abuses and echo the demands of the brave Iranian people protesting for an end to the Islamic Republic and Khamenei’s rule.
But all of this requires the Biden administration to admit that their current policy has failed on both security and human rights grounds. Implementing the MAHSA Act would signal a much-needed course correction.