in Tehran as a “den of spies” as he called on the Obama Administration to expel every Iranian diplomat from the United States.
King became the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee of the US House of Representatives when the GOP took control there last January. Since then, he has been best known nationally for Muslim-bashing.
Last week, he went a step further and accused Iranian diplomats in the United States of fomenting terrorism, though he cited no examples. Then he stepped back a bit and said that even if some Iranian diplomats weren’t plotting terrorist acts, they were still in the United States “to advance Iran’s interest,” although it can be said of any diplomat that he is in a country to advance his own country’s interests.
Regardless, King said, all Iranian diplomats should be booted out of the United States.
The State Department said there are Iranian diplomats assigned to the UN in New York and the United States is required to allow them into the United States as part of its host agreement with the UN. He said there are no diplomats assigned to the United States since Iran and the US do not have diplomatic relations.
Actually, there are four Iranian diplomats assigned to Washington to handle consular matters, such as renewing passports for Iranians living in the United States and registering newborns as citizens. The Islamic Republic, however, does not permit US diplomats to come to Iran to conduct consular activities in Tehran, such as issuing visas and visiting imprisoned US citizens.
King appeared last Wednesday on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” where he called for the expulsion of all Iranian diplomats from US territory, including those at the United Nations.
He stated that Iranian diplomats have been connected to terrorist plots inside the United States, something neither the Bush nor the Obama Administrations has ever suggested. Host Wolf Blitzer challenged King to substantiate his claim.
King responded:
“I’m saying that they clearly have ties to those in Iran who do those things. We know this from both common sense and observation, from talking to people in the community that these people, whether it’s actual terrorist activities or dealing with other countries or just facilitating activities either with them or with Hezbollah, the fact is they are over here for an ulterior purpose. It is not diplomacy. It’s to advance Iran’s interest. And, as I said, there have been instances in the past where we’ve actually caught them doing it. But from people I’ve spoken to, in the intelligence and law enforcement community, there’s no doubt at all.”
That last comment was presumably a reference to a case several years ago in which the United States caught two Iranian diplomats assigned to the UN making videos of the New York subway system late at night, which is clearly not a diplomatic function. Both men were expelled.
King also described the alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington as an “act of war” like Pearl Harbor that would justify an American military response on Iran. Vice President Joe Biden has already said publicly that the plot does not rise to the level of an act of war. Many legal scholars have echoed Biden.
In 1979 and ever since, the Islamic Republic categorized the US embassy in Tehran as a “den of spies” and said that justified the seizure of the embassy and the imprisonment of the diplomats there. King adopted the Iranian embassy categorization but did not advocate seizure.