United States Senate May 12, 2015 ‘The Honorable John Kerty Seotetary of State 2201 € Sweet, NW ‘Washington, DC 20520 Dear Secretary Kerry We write to express strong concern over the ongoing postponement ofthe annual Country Repotts on Human Rights Practices, in particular the Iran Human Rights Report. As you are awa, the Department of State is requited by law to issue tis report every year ina timely manner. Yet after missing the February 25, 2015 deadline, the Department of State announced ‘on April 16" that there would be a further delay. More than two weeks have now passed, and we still have no indication of when this critical document will be avaiable. In the context of the Obama Administration's ongoing negotiations withthe Islamic Republic of Iran over that country's nuclear program, we believe itis imperative this report be published as quickly as possible, Although we appreciate your guarantee that human rights sanctions will be ‘exempt from a list of phased-out sanctions in any final deal with Iran, we are concerned the ‘Obama Administration is filing to recognize the inherent danger of engaging in nuclear egoiations with this particular regime given their appalling record on human tights. That is ‘why we are so eager for this report as it would, for example, be of particular interest to see if the disturbing increase in human tights abuses under President Hasan Rouhani isa continuing trend ‘over the last twelve months. Despite your insistence that human rights, including the ongoing detention of American citizens Saced Abedini, Amit Hekmati and Jason Rezaian as well as the lack of information on Robert Levinson, are marginal to your negotiations we strongly believe we cannot teat this issue in isolation from Iran's potential pursuit of nuclear weapon, The history of the twentieth century elucidates a dangerous axis between internal suppression of human rights and external ‘geression, States that routinely oppress their own citizens ns a method of survival lack legitimacy and pose secuity threats to their neighbors, Accordingly, the question of Iran's cleat ambitions and its human rights record are inextricably intertwined, Congress therefore expects a prompt release of the report. Indeed, it would be unreasonable to ‘expect Congress to do its proper due diligence on any deal reached with Ian without access to this information. Given the June 30, 2015 deadline for negotiations with Iran, we ask that the ‘report be published no later than May 15,201. In the event that this deadline eannot be met we ‘ask that you provide a thorough explanation for the delay by that date We look forward to your timely responseSincerely, Ted Guz Mak Ki States Senat United States Senator Marco Rubio ‘Mike Enzi i. Si United States Senator United States Senator David Perdve ~ 7 United States Senator United States Senator ce: The Honorable Tom Malinowski Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor