A senior American congressional committee has amplified an Iranian community letter saying that South African officials are siding with terrorists.

In a post on X, the United States (US) House Foreign Affairs Committee, a key congressional body that oversees US foreign policy and shapes how the US engages with the world, shared an open letter written by members of the Iranian community in South Africa, highlighting their criticism of South African parliamentarians who were defending Iran’s government.

The committee’s post said, “Tehran’s terrorist regime is losing its grip on silencing their own people, so they are looking for support from weak partners abroad. It’s disgusting to see South African officials standing alongside these terrorists while the regime kills thousands of its own people.”

The open letter from the Iranian community in South Africa said Iran was “trapped under a regime that denies its people even the most basic rights”, and argued that ordinary citizens are unheard as “the internet is restricted” and “information is controlled”.

The letter was also explicitly critical of South African politicians. It said that “in South Africa’s Parliament, we watched elected representatives stand up and defend this regime” and contrasted this with what it described as silence on violence inside Iran, asking, “Where were the condolences for our brothers and sisters?”

The letter, however, singled out the Democratic Alliance’s Ryan Smith for praise, thanking him “for putting part of our previous statement on record – for making sure that, at the very least, our voice was heard in that chamber”.

It further stated that South African officials had stood “alongside representatives of this regime – even signing condolence books at the Iranian embassy – while saying nothing about the mass killing of Iranian civilians”.

“As South Africa prepares to mark Freedom Day, the contrast is impossible to ignore. Here, people will celebrate the right to vote, to speak openly, to live without fear of their own government. These are simple freedoms – but they are exactly what people in Iran are still fighting for, and in many cases, dying for,” the Iranian community’s letter said.

Given the state of war between the US and Iran, coupled with tensions between the South African government and Washington, this latest broadside from a senior congressional body in America does not bode well for easing of tensions between the US and South Africa in the near term.