UN Security Council Holds Moment of Silence for Iranian President Known as ‘Butcher of Tehran’
On Monday the United Nations Security Council held a minute of silence for Ebrahim Raisi, the late president of Iran who died in a helicopter crash over the weekend, in spite of his reputation as a serial human rights abuser, which earned him the nickname “Butcher of Tehran.”
The representatives stood and observed the moment of silence for Raisi — ahead of a meeting on international threats to peace and security — at the request of Russia, China and Algeria. Mozambique’s ambassador to the U.N., Pedro Comissário Afonso, who holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month, announced the moment of silence.
A profoundly shameful moment at the UN Security Council as the US ambassador stands for a moment of silence to honor the Butcher of Tehran pic.twitter.com/EA2U7oMmt0
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) May 20, 2024
United States Deputy Ambassador to the U.N. Robert Wood joined his colleagues in rosing to his feet to honor Raisi’s memory, according to The Daily Wire’s Kassy Akiva.
This is US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood standing for a moment of silence in honor of the former Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi today at the UN Security Council meeting.
Reminder: Raisi represented the government that calls for “death to America.” pic.twitter.com/7bkihCLkgT
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyDillon) May 20, 2024
Raisi’s involvement in the mass execution of thousands of Iranian political prisoners in 1988 earned him his unflattering moniker. Amnesty International described the purge like this:
Thousands of political dissidents were systematically subjected to enforced disappearance in Iranian detention facilities across the country and extrajudicially executed pursuant to an order issued by the Supreme Leader of Iran and implemented across prisons in the country Many of those killed during this time were subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in the process.
After being elected president in 2021, Raisi said he should be “praised” for his actions at the time. “If a judge, a prosecutor has defended the security of the people, he should be praised,” he told reporters.
Raisi also expressed doubts over the Holocaust and called for the destruction of the state of Israel and establishment of “a Palestinian state from the river to the sea.”
