Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei again demonstrated his moral bankruptcy by announcing five days of public mourning for “the Butcher of Tehran,” Iranian President Ayatollah Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi – a genocidal mass-murderer who died Sunday in a helicopter accident.
It is also extremely disappointing, to say the least, that the Biden administration, via State Department top spokesman Matthew Miller, offered “official condolences” for Raisi’s death.
Also, shamefully, the whole UN Security Council (including the U.S.) and the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) each immorally stood for a minute of silence in sympathy, condolence and remembrance of Raisi. The U.S. representative to the UNSC seemed reluctant to stand, but did so, likely under orders from Biden’s State Department to participate in this shameful display. (See discussion by fmr. Ambassador Ric Grenell.) Meanwhile, marking a new low in the UN’s depraved, evil hypocrisy, while UN bodies were honoring mass-murderer Raisi, prosecutor Karim Khan of the UN’s misnamed International Court of Justice (ICC) announced that he is seeking arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for defending the Jewish people!
Raisi has the blood of thousands of innocent people on his hands, including Israelis, Americans and his own countrymen, and was subject to U.S. sanctions. Raisi was a member of Iran’s notorious “death committees” which ordered the killing of thousands of innocent Iranians. During Raisi’s reign as Iran’s president, Iran ramped up Iran’s nuclear weapons program to the point where Iran likely has enough fissile material for three nuclear bombs; threatened to use nuclear ICBMs “to turn New York into ruins and hell” and to “turn the West and Israel’s nightmare into a reality”; funded, trained, armed and gave the go-ahead to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to slaughter, torture and kidnap Israelis on October 7th; funded and trained Hezbollah, the Houthis and other proxies that launched thousands of missiles at Israelis and at American troops; launched 350 missiles directly from Iran at Israel; jailed over 19,000 Iranian protesters and killed at least 500 Iranian protesters, including 60 children, during “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests in Iran following Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody for violating Iran’s strict hijab laws; and pursued assassination plots against U.S. residents and top U.S. officials.
Mass-murderer Raisi does not deserve days of public mourning or condolences or minutes of silence honoring him. The Iranian leader’s declaration of public mourning for Raisi is similar to the Palestinian Authority’s days of public mourning for Arab terrorists who perpetrated horrible massacres against innocent Jews. Rejecting such shameful mourning displays, throughout the world, many Iranians and others repressed during Raisi’s reign cheered Raisi’s death with celebratory fireworks and dancing. ZOA is simply relieved that there is less evil in the world with Raisi gone. Raisi can no longer harm Israelis, Americans and the Iranian people.
In August 2022, ZOA drafted a letter to President Biden, signed by 18 organizations, imploring Biden to deny visas to Raisi and his delegation to enter the U.S. to attend the UN General Assembly in September, due to the serious U.S. national security concerns posed by Raisi’s entry into the United States. (See “ZOA: Eighteen Organizations Send Letter (Drafted by ZOA) Urging Pres. Biden to Deny Visa to Iranian Pres. & Mass-Murderer Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi,” Aug. 16, 2022.) Prominent Senators also sent a letter urging President Biden to deny a visa to Raisi; and former Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman and former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Mark Wallace published a Wall Street Journal op-ed urging President Biden to deny the visa.
Disappointingly, Biden and his State Department went ahead and supplied Raisi with a visa for the 2022 UN General Assembly – and gave Raisi another visa for the 2023 UN General Assembly.
During Raisi’s ensuing 2023 UN General Assembly speech – just three weeks before the Iranian-sponsored October 7th slaughter of innocent Israelis, Raisi declared: “Has the time not come to put an end” to Israel?
It is a relief that the time has come for an end to Raisi’s evil.