{"id":19379,"date":"2024-05-21T12:47:16","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T12:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/21\/un-holds-moment-of-silence-for-butcher-of-tehran-raisi-after-iranian-president-dies-in-helicopter-crash\/"},"modified":"2024-05-21T12:47:16","modified_gmt":"2024-05-21T12:47:16","slug":"un-holds-moment-of-silence-for-butcher-of-tehran-raisi-after-iranian-president-dies-in-helicopter-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/21\/un-holds-moment-of-silence-for-butcher-of-tehran-raisi-after-iranian-president-dies-in-helicopter-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"UN holds moment of silence for \u2018Butcher of Tehran\u2019 Raisi after Iranian president dies in helicopter crash"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Despite earning the nickname the \u2018Butcher of Tehran\u2019 for presiding over Iran\u2019s human rights abuses, the United Nations on Monday held a moment of silence for Ebrahim Raisi after the Iranian president died in a helicopter crash.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the request of Russia, China, and Algeria, representatives \u2013 including United States Deputy Ambassador to the U.N. Robert Wood \u2013 stood at the U.N. Security Council for a minute to honor Raisi.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Israeli U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan called the moment of silence in memory of \u2018mass murdering\u2019 Raisi a \u2018disgrace.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

Erdan slammed the U.N. Security Council for doing nothing to advance the release of the remaining hostages who have been in Hamas captivity since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This Council, Erdan said, \u2018bowed its head for a man responsible for massacring and murdering thousands in Iran, in Israel, and around the globe. What\u2019s next? Will the Council dedicate a moment of silence to commemorate Hitler?\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

State Department spokesperson Matt Miller addressed the U.S.\u2019 participation in the moment of silence at an afternoon press briefing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked if the U.S.\u2019 participation was appropriate, Miller clarified that \u2018we have been quite clear that Ebrahim Raisi was a brutal participant in the repression of the Iranian people for nearly four decades.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

Miller pointed to Raisi\u2019s involvement in \u2018numerous horrific human rights abuses, including playing a key role in the extrajudicial killing of thousands of political prisoners in 1988.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Some of the worst human rights abuses occurred during his tenure as president, especially the human rights abuses against the women and girls of Iran,\u2019 Miller said, but qualified: \u2018That said, we regret any loss of life. We don\u2019t want to see anyone die in a helicopter crash. But that doesn\u2019t change the reality of his record, both as a judge and as the president of Iran.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

Behnam Ben Taleblu, an expert on Iranian security at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), criticized both the U.N. and the State Department for self-defeating actions.<\/p>\n

\u2018Rather than use this time to push for moral clarity, this muddled approach towards Raisi\u2019s bloody past mistakenly prioritizes diplomatic niceties over reality,\u2019 Taleblu said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

A senior adviser to the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. told Fox News Digital that it \u2018is [the] diplomatic norm to stand for moments of silence in the Security Council and by no means represents any honor or tribute to a man whose repression and brutality the U.S. consistently countered in that very room.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Raisi was a brutal participant in the repression of the Iranian people for nearly four decades.\u00a0 He was involved in numerous, horrific human rights abuses, including playing a key role in the extrajudicial killings of thousands of political prisoners in 1988,\u2019 the adviser said. \u2018Some of the worst human rights abuses on record, especially against the women and girls of Iran, took place during his tenure.\u2019<\/p>\n

Iranian state media confirmed early Monday that President Raisi, along with others, including the country\u2019s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, was found dead after an hours-long search through a foggy, mountainous region of the country\u2019s northwest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Raisi was returning via helicopter after traveling to Iran\u2019s border with Azerbaijan to inaugurate a dam with Azerbaijan\u2019s President Ilham Aliyev when the crash happened in the Dizmar forest in East Azerbaijan province.<\/p>\n

Raisi was seen as a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 to Iran\u2019s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a potential successor for his position within the country\u2019s Shiite theocracy.<\/p>\n

But Raisi\u2019s death has also highlighted his human rights record.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1988, at the end of Iran\u2019s long war with Iraq, Raisi served on what would become known as \u2018death commissions,\u2019 which handed down death sentences for political prisoners, militants and others. International rights groups estimate that as many as 5,000 people were executed.<\/p>\n

Raisi has defended his actions, saying at a news conference that he was \u2018proud of being a defender of human rights and of people\u2019s security and comfort as a prosecutor wherever I was.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

Activists abroad, like the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, described Raisi\u2019s presidency as seeing \u2018a stunning escalation of state repression and violence against peaceful dissent in Iran.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Raisi presided over a country suffocated by a regime that fears its own people,\u2019 said Hadi Ghaemi, the center\u2019s executive director. \u2018He was merely one boot on the necks of the Iranian people; others can easily take his place.\u2019<\/p>\n

Mass protests swept the country in 2022 after the\u00a0death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who had been detained over her allegedly loose headscarf, or hijab.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0monthslong security crackdown that followed the demonstrations\u00a0killed more than 500 people and more than 22,000 others were detained.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite earning the nickname the \u2018Butcher of Tehran\u2019 for presiding over Iran\u2019s human rights abuses, the United Nations on Monday held a moment of silence for Ebrahim Raisi after the Iranian president died in a helicopter crash.\u00a0 At the request of Russia, China, and Algeria, representatives \u2013 including United States Deputy Ambassador to the U.N. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":19380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}