UN General Assembly Hall Empty During Raisi Memorial
A highly controversial memorial ceremony for former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was held at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Thursday, with most countries refusing to attend.
A highly controversial memorial ceremony for former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was held at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Thursday, with most countries refusing to attend.
Photos received from the UN show that the General Assembly Hall was almost empty during the event. A US official had earlier indicated that the Biden administration would not send a representative to the meeting, although earlier this month they expressed official condolences for Raisi’s death.
The Islamic Republic's state news agency (IRNA) reported that the UN General Assembly, in its first meeting after the death of Raisi and his entourage, observed a minute of silence "in their honor."
IRNA wrote that "the tribute and expression of sympathy from various countries around the world" following Raisi's death has "angered opponents of the Islamic Republic."
There have also been reports of protests held in front of the United Nations in opposition to the memorial ceremony for Raisi, widely condemned by Iranian activists and others worldwide.
Before the ceremony, the Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the country would not participate in Raisi's memorial service at the UN.
A spokesperson for the French ambassador to the United Nations told an Iran International reporter that no representative from France would attend the UN memorial service for Raisi.
Previously, Senator Claire Chandler, Chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Committee of Australia, emphasized in a statement that the country should boycott and condemn the UN's tribute to the "Butcher of Tehran."
The statement read: "The Australian government is obligated to boycott today's horrific tribute by the UN General Assembly to a man many Iranians know as the 'Butcher of Tehran'."
Raisi was a member of a “Death Committee” that in 1988 ordered the summary execution of 3,000-5,000 political prisoners who were serving their jail terms. He was also president when nationwide anti-government protests broke out in September 2022, when security forces killed around 550 civilians during four months of unrest and arrested 22,000 others. Dozens of protesters lost eyes and limbs when security forces fired guns at close range.
Earlier this month, the UN Security Council held a moment of silence for Raisi, during which the US representative also stood up and paid tribute. This led to vehement criticism by Iranians and Republican lawmakers.
Senator Tom Cotton and others condemned the Biden administration’s stance, accusing President Joe Biden of pursuing a policy of appeasement toward Iran.
“When I saw one minute of silence at the United Nations… it was a slap on the face of Iranian women who got killed simply for showing their hair,” Iranian-American activist Masih Alinejad told ABC News on May 20. “It’s a slap on the face of men getting executed simply for protesting.”
Raisi spent his 45-year career in the Islamic Republic as a prosecutor or Islamic judicial official involved with persecuting dissidents.
As candidate registration began on Thursday, the main question remained whether Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other hardliners will signal to reformists and other factions to come forward as candidates in the snap elections following President Ebrahim Raisi's death on May 19.
While moderates and reformists hope that Raisi's death will facilitate their political comeback, they seem to overlook that their isolation and exclusion from political activity are not the results of a democratic competition with Raisi and other hardliners. Rather, it was Khamenei’s loyalists who systematically barred other insiders from three elections since February 2020, pushing them out of the government.
While centrist and reformist newspapers put forward the names of more than 30 reform-minded political figures this week, Khamenei and hardliners in the government have not changed their mind and keep repeating what they said even before Raisi was officially pronounced dead. They are adamant that nothing is going to change. They want someone exactly like Raisi, meaning a hardliner loyal to the Supreme Leader.
During the week after Raisi's death officials and clerics have been glorifying him and fabricating "achievements" for him. And as they know it is difficult to convince the public about those achievements, they have been telling stories about links between Raisi and Muslim saints who died centuries ago.
Posters shout in large fonts: "You were not illiterate," referring to the public view that the late president had only a sixth-grade standard education and he spent the rest of his teenage years in Shiite seminaries. They also claim that under Raisi Iran had the second biggest economic growth rate in the world, while more than 10 million were added to the ranks of the poor under the heavy burden of a persistent 50% annual inflation rate.
Others highlight Raisi's broken promises: building four million homes, providing free Internet for low-income Iranians, supporting online businesses, reforming the banking system, facilitating the return of expats, cracking down on government corruption, halving medical costs, controlling inflation and exchange rates, and reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.
None of these promises have been even partially fulfilled, and the situation has worsened in the three years since Raisi took office. Nevertheless, hardliners still want someone similar to him as the new President. Mohammad Mokhber, the vice president and now acting president, has stated that the plan to build four million houses was intended to begin in Raisi's fourth year in office, had he survived.
Dozens of names put forward by political groups include vice presidents, cabinet ministers and other state officials from the past, individuals such as former vice president Es'haq Jahangiri; the former chief of staff of President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Hossein Marashi; former vice president Mohammad Reza Aref; Former Majles Speaker Ali Larijani; former Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati, and Expediency Council member Mohammad Sadr who has even prepared an election campaign video days before registration of candidates start.
But politicians proposing these names cannot explain what those individuals and others on their long lists have achieved during their long careers in the past 45 years.
On the conservative side, individuals close to the Supreme Leader's office, such as Parviz Fattah—a key figure in Khamenei’s “charity-business” conglomerate—have been named as potential candidates. Their careers have primarily involved protecting Khamenei's assets and channeling funds into ineffective projects and Iran’s regional ambitions.
During the past week, Vice President Mokhber has been mentioned at least five times as the best candidate to replace Raisi. However, he has repeatedly demurred, stating that he is currently too busy to run for the presidency. Other hardliners, like former Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan, have also declined, saying they have their current jobs and do not need to run for President. It is not clear if they know something others don’t.
With over 30 years of experience in dealing with every one of these possible candidates Khamenei knows them better than anyone else, and when he says there will not be any major change, he means it.