S.C.R. 16 Enrolled

1

BONDS OF FRIENDSHIP WITH IRAN CONCURRENT
2 RESOLUTION
3 2011 GENERAL SESSION
4 STATE OF UTAH
5 Chief Sponsor: Peter C. Knudson
6 House Sponsor: Don L. Ipson
7 Cosponsor:Curtis S. Bramble 8
9 LONG TITLE
10 General Description:
11 This concurrent resolution of the Legislature and the Governor expresses support for
12 the People of Iran's struggle for freedom.
13 Highlighted Provisions:
14 This resolution:
15 . declares that the people of Utah stand with the Iranian people in their struggle for
16 freedom, justice, peace, and prosperity for Iran; and
17 . calls on the United States Government, the international community, and the
18 Islamic world to support the Iranian people by defending their democratic rights.
19 Special Clauses:
20 None
21
22 Be it resolved by the Legislature of the state of Utah, the Governor concurring therein:
23 WHEREAS, the American people recognize and support the Iranian people in their
24 century-long struggle for democracy, freedom, justice, and human rights;
25 WHEREAS, the government of the Islamic Republic's crackdowns on democracy,
26 support for terrorism, and pursuit of nuclear weapons pose a grave threat to the Iranian people
27 as well as the security of the United States, Israel, and their allies in the Persian Gulf;
28 WHEREAS, since its establishment in 1979, the government of the Islamic Republic of

29 Iran has engaged in numerous criminal and terrorist acts, including the arbitrary and unlawful
30 judicial murder of thousands of Iranian political and religious dissidents as well as minors and
31 juveniles;
32 WHEREAS, the Islamic Republic has also established a system of religious apartheid in
33 which Iranian women are treated as second class citizens, and Iran's minorities are persecuted
34 for exercising their freedom of religion;
35 WHEREAS, in 2009, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran staged a
36 presidential election that was marred by fraud and violence in which President Mahmoud
37 Ahmadinejad dismissed millions of Iranian voters demanding free and fair elections as "dust
38 and dirt";
39 WHEREAS, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, sanctified the rigged election by
40 equating the fundamentals of religion with fraud, force, terrorism, and tyranny;
41 WHEREAS, since the fraudulent elections, grieving mothers and families searching for
42 missing relatives and demanding the release of political prisoners have been denied justice;
43 WHEREAS, there has been a dramatic surge in death sentences carried out by the
44 government of the Islamic Republic of Iran despite United Nations' calls for a moratorium on
45 executions;
46 WHEREAS, there has been a systematic crackdown on students, scholars, workers,
47 teachers, clerics, and journalists for exercising their freedoms of speech and assembly;
48 WHEREAS, the American and Iranian people have been and remain steadfast friends
49 and allies;
50 WHEREAS, over the past century, the American people's support for Iran's political
51 and economic independence enabled the Iranian government to end the Soviet occupation of
52 Northern Iran and led to the peaceful withdrawal of the Red Army from Iran in the aftermath of
53 the Second World War;
54 WHEREAS, the United States played a pivotal role in Iran's economic development
55 from 1946 to 1979, and American aid and assistance helped the Iranian people's efforts to
56 eradicate poverty, famine, disease, and illiteracy;

57 WHEREAS, Iranian-Americans have emerged as a vital and vibrant force in American
58 political, economic, and civic life;
59 WHEREAS, successive American presidents and statesmen have stood by the Iranian
60 people in their struggle for justice, democracy, peace, and prosperity;
61 WHEREAS, the Iranian people's call for democracy and freedom has helped to light the
62 torch of hope, liberty, dignity, and justice not only in Iran but throughout the Middle East and
63 the Islamic world; and
64 WHEREAS, the liberation of humankind from under the yoke of fascism, communism,
65 and other false ideologies that elevate the state above the individual depends on the moral
66 conviction of free people everywhere to reject oppression, slavery, tyranny, and terrorism:
67 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of the state of Utah, the
68 Governor concurring therein, declare that the people of Utah stand with the people of Iran in
69 their struggle for freedom, justice, peace, and prosperity for Iran, and reaffirm the bonds of
70 friendship between the people of Utah and the people of Iran.
71 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature and the Governor call on the
72 government of the United States, as well as the international community and the Islamic world,
73 to support the Iranian people by defending the democratic right of the Iranian people to choose
74 their own government through free and fair elections, demanding that Iran's supreme leader
75 recognize and respect the sovereignty of the Iranian people and that he cease abusing his
76 religious and political standing by rigging elections and equating fraud and force with the
77 fundamentals of religion and democracy, to protect Iran's civil society by demanding that the
78 Iranian judiciary end the arbitrary arrest, detention, torture, and execution of Iranian citizens for
79 defending the right to elect their own government, determine their own destiny, and exercise
80 their freedom of religion, to prevent Iran's leaders from using proceeds from the sale of oil to
81 arm and finance private militias, terrorist groups, and other extremists responsible for
82 committing acts of terrorism against the Iranian people as well as the United States and its
83 allies in the Middle East, to deny Iran's leaders the capacity to hold the Iranian people and the
84 rest of the world hostage by developing nuclear weapons and engaging in nuclear blackmail,

85 and to help facilitate the Iranian people's struggle to transform Iran into a bastion of democracy,
86 prosperity, and peace in the region.
87 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be sent to the President of
88 the United States, the United States Secretary of State, the Secretary General of the United
89 Nations, the chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the
90 chairman of the United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, and to
91 the members of Utah's congressional delegation.