International Courant
The State Division provided its condolences Monday after the deaths of two Iranian leaders, together with the Islamic Republic’s president, a “baffling” transfer contemplating Iran’s well-known human rights abuses, a human rights lawyer says.
In an announcement, the company expressed “its official condolences for the loss of life of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Overseas Minister Amir-Abdollahian, and different members of their delegation in a helicopter crash in northwest Iran.”
“As Iran selects a brand new president, we reaffirm our help for the Iranian individuals and their wrestle for human rights and elementary freedoms,” company spokesperson Matthew Miller mentioned.
Raisi and Amirabdollahian have been killed Sunday after their helicopter crashed within the Dizmar Forest in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province on Sunday. Raisi was returning to Tehran after touring to Iran’s border with Azerbaijan to inaugurate a dam with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.
IRANIAN PRESIDENT EXPERIENCES ‘HARD LANDING’ IN HELICOPTER: IRANIAN MEDIA
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi attends a navy parade alongside high-ranking officers and commanders. Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday. (Atta Kenare/AFP by way of Getty Photos/File)
Iran’s state-run information company, IRNA, mentioned the crash killed eight individuals, together with three crew members aboard the Bell helicopter, which Iran bought within the early 2000s.
Raisi was nicknamed the “Butcher of Tehran” for his oversight of mass executions of political prisoners in 1988, which pressured Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to put in interim management for Iran’s govt department.
The helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi takes off on the Iranian border with Azerbaijan after Raisi and his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, inaugurated the dam of Qiz Qalasi in Azeri, Iran, on Could 19, 2024. (Ali Hamed Haghdoust/IRNA by way of AP)
“He is been chargeable for the incarceration, torture, rape and homicide of tens of 1000’s of individuals over the previous few a long time,” Gerard Filitti, senior counsel with the Lawfare Venture, which offers professional bono authorized providers to guard the civil and human rights of Jewish individuals worldwide, informed Fox Information Digital. “Raisi isn’t a person who shall be missed.”
“Whereas it’s comprehensible for the State Division to difficulty condolences when there may be the loss of life of a overseas head of state, it is baffling that somebody who has such an atrocious report of violating human rights, supporting international terrorism, concentrating on the USA and allies, is somebody who’s receiving this outpouring of condolences, successfully from the USA authorities,” he added.
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE EVENT OF RAISI’S DEATH? AN IRAN EXPERT WEIGHS IN
Rescue staff members seek for the wreckage of the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Iran. (Azin Haghighi, Moj Information Company by way of AP)
Fox Information Digital has reached out to the State Division for additional remark however has not but heard again.
Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s minister of overseas affairs, mentioned condolences to Raisi could be inappropriate given Tehran’s alliance with Russia.
“I do not really feel comfy sending condolences whereas Iran is sending drones which might be used in opposition to civilians in Ukraine,” he wrote on social media.
Iran, an Islamic theocracy, has lengthy cracked down on dissent from its residents and has been identified for its human rights abuses, together with jailing individuals for dancing, social media exercise and ladies who break the nation’s strict costume code.
“There isn’t any secret that Iran violates human rights. It is a matter of its apply to rule in response to its interpretation of non secular regulation, and that leaves little room for what we perceive as civil rights or human rights within the western democratic context,” Filitti mentioned.
He famous that the Biden administration has launched into a technique of attempting to appease Tehran with regard to nuclear deal negotiations and releasing up billions of {dollars} that Iran makes use of to conduct terror assaults and abuse its residents.
“It is actually troubling that now we’re seeing, successfully, a continuation of that. Each in providing condolences for the lack of Raisi, however principally seemingly, persevering with to work with the following regime on the identical failed technique of appeasement,” mentioned Filitti.
The United Nations Safety Council additionally honored Raisi on Monday with a second of silence. The remark got here after a request from Russia, China and Algeria, Iran’s Everlasting Mission to the U.N. mentioned.
State Division spokesperson Matthew Miller was requested by a reporter throughout a press briefing why the U.S. participated within the second of silence for Raisi on the U.N. assembly.
“Now we have been fairly clear that Ebrahim Raisi was a brutal participant within the repression of the Iranian individuals for almost 4 a long time. He was concerned in quite a few horrific human rights abuses, together with enjoying a key position within the extrajudicial killing of 1000’s of political prisoners in 1988. Among the worst human rights abuses occurred throughout his tenure as president, particularly the human rights abuses in opposition to the ladies and women of Iran,” Miller defined. “That mentioned, we remorse any lack of life. We do not need to see anybody die in a helicopter crash. However that does not change the truth of his report, each as a decide and because the president of Iran.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“The Iranian authorities & individuals specific gratitude for the united states’s condolences & solidarity,” the mission posted on X.
U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry Black additionally acknowledged Raisi’s loss of life throughout his invocation.
“And Lord, we pray for the Iranian individuals who mourn the loss of life of their president,” he mentioned.
State Division points condolences over ‘Butcher of Tehran’s’ loss of life
World Information,Subsequent Large Factor in Public Knowledg