The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and the People’s Mujahedin, reported that Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian regime’s president, addressed the UN General Assembly via video conference instead of attending the assembly in person on Tuesday.

The unique opportunity that we missed

Raisi’s absence, according to Takhtravanchi, is due to Covid concerns, a claim rejected and derided even by the regime’s own state-run media. Surprisingly, Raisi had no concerns about attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s meeting, which was held in Tajikistan last week.

The government, logically, would have leaped at the chance to have its freshly installed president attend a UN session with other international leaders. “In the current conditions of the region, attending the UN session at this time was a unique opportunity that we missed,” the state-run Arman daily reported on September 18.

 

 

The chance to repair his image

So, why would the Iranian regime’s president refuse to attend one of the most significant international political gatherings? Why, more significantly, would Raisi pass up the chance to repair his image by standing with international leaders?

The regime’s own experts and media speak eloquently about the difficulty that Tehran faces as a result of having a murderer as its president.

 

 

Participation in the 1988 execution

Raisi’s human rights crimes were alluded to by the state-run Jahan-e Sanat, including his significant participation in the 1988 execution of more than 30,000 political prisoners, which has sparked anger and censure from lawmakers throughout the world.

On September 18, Jahan-e Sanat reported that “six Republican Senators had written a letter to [US President Joe] Biden, requesting that he deny Raisi entry to American soil.”

 

Demonstrations by Iranians living abroad

“Maybe one of the worries is reactions in other countries [to Raisi’s trip to New York], such as demonstrations by Iranians living abroad,” a jurist mentioned in the story expressly noted. Such incidents will have negative consequences, and the trip will not be worthwhile in such circumstances.”

This was a reference to the Iranian Resistance’s frequent rallies in recent months, asking for Raisi and other regime leaders implicated in the 1988 massacre and other crimes against humanity to be arrested and prosecuted. The continuing prosecution of Hamid Nouri, a regime official who is being prosecuted in a Swedish court for torturing political detainees in the 1980s and his participation in the 1988 massacre, has heightened the situation for the regime.

 

Perhaps not attending a global summit will be better

“The current situation in Iran and its relations with the rest of the world is such that perhaps not attending a global summit will be better than attending one, and political reasons and some preventive measures against possible marginal issues may drive us to forego the benefits of participating in a session such as the UN General Assembly,” Jahan-e Sanat concludes.

The regime has reached a deadlock. On the one hand, Khamenei needed to select Raisi as president in order to keep his grip on power despite the rising tide of discontent in Iranian society. The nomination of an executioner as president, on the other hand, has worldwide implications that the government cannot manage.

 

 

 

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