Dear Mr. President.
I am deeply concerned over reports that the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Qods Force, Major General Qasem Soleimani, recently travelled to Russia in violation of United Nations Security Council sanctions. Public reports suggest that this deadly terrorist arrived in Moscow on July 24th - just 10 days after the Iran nuclear agreement was announced - and held meetings with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and President Vladimir Putin.
As you know, U.N. Security Council sanctions remain in effect, and will not be lifted until Iran is certified as completing its nuclear commitments under the final agreement. Member states are still under an obligation to enforce the U.N. travel ban on Soleimani and freeze his assets. Indeed, these sanctions also apply to individuals or companies acting on his behalf.
I appreciate that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power has said that the U.S. is investigating whether this was a violation of United Nations Security Council sanctions. But this should not be a difficult matter to determine. Indeed, initial press reports included flight numbers and dates of Soleimani’s reported travel. If he did travel to Moscow, there must be strong and immediate action.
Unfortunately, this is just the latest report of countries failing to enforce U.N. sanctions against Iran. In June, it was reported that there had been a noticeable decrease in reports from U.N. member states of Iranian violations of U.N. sanctions. The reports suggested that some countries were refraining from reporting violations to avoid undermining the then ongoing nuclear negotiations.
Additionally, there have been multiple reports of Iranian weapons shipments to Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen, as well as Hezbollah and Hamas militants, in violation of a U.N. embargo. It was even reported that not a single country referred those arms shipments to the Security Council’s Iran sanctions committee in line with standard procedure for suspected breaches.
In light of these recent events, I respectfully request the following information.
* A determination of whether the travel of Soleimani took place, its purpose, and whether it was in violation of United Nations sanctions; and
* A list of all referrals of violations of United Nations Security Council sanctions to the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1737 (2006) since September 2013.
Since the Iran agreement was signed, senior Administration officials have testified that there would be no relaxing of sanctions against Iran for terrorist activity. The reported free travel of Qasem Soleimani and the continuing arming of Iranian proxies throughout the Middle East is a direct challenge to that commitment.
Thank you for your attention to this request, and I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
EDWARD R. ROYCE
Chairman.
