The White House told Newsmax on Monday it was standing by an internationally known prisoner of conscience now being held by Iran's totalitarian regime.
But somewhat surprisingly, there was wasn't a similar response to our question about jailed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
In response to a question from Newsmax, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the Biden Administration would do “whatever we can do” to hold the Iranian regime accountable for its arrest November 23 of the niece of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for her opposition to his regime.
Last week, Farideh Moradkhani, niece of the Ayatollah, was arrested for recording a video on YouTube in which she denounced her uncle’s “murderous and child-killing regime.”
“[W]e believe in the right of peaceful protests,” Kirby told us at the regular briefing for reporters at the White House, “We have made it clear that we stand with particularly… it’s largely Iranian women, it’s obviously beyond that… but particularly their concerns about the dictates that have effected their lives personally.”
Kirby then underscored “we’ll continue to do whatever we can to, not only support their right of protest, but to hold the regime accountable for the ways it’s treating its people.”
The president’s top spokesman on national security stopped short of making a similar statement about Aung San Suu Kyi, the Myanmar leader imprisoned and held incommunicado by that country’s military dictatorship.
“I don’t have some sort of preview of a statement to read out to you today,” Kirby told us, “We’ve been very clear about our concerns over the military’s domination there, and their practice and their policies, particularly the way they treat political prisoners. But I don’t have a statement for you today about that particular issue.”
The Monday edition of the Financial Times had an in-depth report by a just-released prisoner from the same facility in which Aung San Suu Kyi is imprisoned and unable to communicate with supporters.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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