WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Senate approved a bill Monday to block a former hostage-taker chosen to be Iran's ambassador to the United Nations from entering the United States. By voice vote, Republicans and Democrats united behind the legislation sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz that reflected congressional animosity toward Tehran and its selection of Hamid Aboutalebi. He was a member of a Muslim student group that held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days in the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
By voice vote, Republicans and Democrats united behind the legislation sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz that reflected congressional animosity toward Tehran and its selection of Hamid Aboutalebi. He was a member of a Muslim student group that held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days in the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
Aboutalebi reportedly has insisted that his involvement was limited to translation and negotiation.
The "nomination is a deliberate and unambiguous insult to the United States," Cruz said in remarks on the Senate floor.
well we know Cruz is prone to use hyperbole to magnify his rants but this time he has a point, it is a slap in the face regardless to if he did no more than guard the outside door, that was a despicable move on behalf of the Ayatola and a in your face objective, to now embrace them without an apology or with one is not a good message to send that we forgive a deliberate violation of our people abroad.
