Sec. 4. United States policy on hostage-taking by the Government of Iran
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Congress finds the following: Since 1979 the Iranian regime has engaged in various destabilizing activities that undermine the national security of the United States and its allies and partners. These activities include the hostage-taking or prolonged arbitrary detentions of United States citizens and other persons with connections to Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and other countries allied with the United States. The Iranian regime has detained on fabricated claims a significant number of United States citizens, including Siamak and Baquer Namazi and Xiyue Wang, as well as United States legal permanent resident, Nizar Zakka, in violation of international legal norms.
The Iranian regime has not provided information on the whereabouts of or assistance in ensuring the prompt and safe return of Robert Levinson, despite repeated promises to do so, after he was kidnapped while visiting Iran’s Kish Island on March 9, 2007—making him the longest held hostage in United States history. The Iranian regime reportedly uses hostages as leverage against foreign investors to exact business concessions in foreign investment deals. The type of hostage-taking enterprise put in place by the Iranian regime is a crime against humanity and a violation of customary international law.
It is the sense of the Congress that— the President should fully utilize all necessary and appropriate measures to prevent the Iranian regime from engaging in hostage-taking or the prolonged arbitrary detention of United States citizens or aliens lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence, to include— the use of extradition to try and convict those individuals responsible for ordering or controlling such hostage-taking or arbitrary detention; and the use of the Department of Homeland Security’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Unit to target such individuals; and the United States should encourage its allies and other affected countries to pursue the criminal prosecution and extradition of state and non-state actors in Iran that assist in or benefit from such hostage-taking to prevent such state and non-state actors from engaging in this practice in the future.
It shall be the policy of the United States Government not to pay ransom or release prisoners for the purpose of securing the release of United States citizens or aliens lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence taken hostage abroad. Not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate a report that contains a strategy to prevent elements of the Iranian regime from engaging in hostage-taking or the prolonged arbitrary detention of United States citizens or aliens lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence.