The US was boycotting a UN tribute to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash, Reuters reported.
The 193-member UN General Assembly traditionally meets to honour any world leader who was a sitting head of state at the time of his death. However, a US official stated:
We won’t attend this event in any capacity.
Raisi, considered a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, died when his helicopter crashed in bad weather in the mountains near the border with Azerbaijan on May 19.
The United Nations should be standing with the people of Iran, not memorialising their decades-long oppressor. Raisi was involved in numerous, horrific human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killings of thousands of political prisoners in 1988.
The UN Security Council stood at the beginning of an unrelated meeting on May 20 for a moment of silence to honour the victims of the helicopter crash. US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood unwillingly supported his 14 colleagues.
The US expressed its “official condolences” over Raisi’s death, the State Department reported on May 20. Meanwhile, White House national security spokesman John Kirby accused Raisi of brutality.
No question this was a man who had a lot of blood on his hands.
However, some Republican members of Congress sharply criticised US President Joe Biden’s administration for expressing condolences to Iran. That might be the reason why the US boycotted the UN tribute.
Raisi, 63, became president in 2021. During his term in office, he ordered the tightening of morality laws. According to Reuters, Raisi also led a crackdown on anti-government protests and actively promoted nuclear talks with world powers.
