This writer has tried to raise awareness regarding the dangers of a nuclear warhead equipped Islamic Republic of Iran, and its regime's history of calling for the destruction of America — and Israel.
Today, awareness must be raised about the upcoming address by Islamic Republic of Iran President Ebrahim ("The Butcher") Raisi to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. That speech is slated for next month.
Such Awareness mandates that a strong, clear message be sent to President Joe Biden.
The president must enforce existing sanctions against Raisi, and do so in a manner allowing the U.S. government to ban entry to a sanctioned individual, or at the very least, facilitate America's shutting down its airspace to this individual, forcing "The Butcher" to fly into Canada, or even seek another entry point — into New York.
Recently, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) released a video threatening to use nuclear bombs to "turn New York into hellish ruins."
This video should serve as the last straw on the camel’s back for those who cling to the belief in diplomacy with the globe's leading sponsor of terrorism.
Why would we let the leader of a country enter ours, expecially after his government just threatened to drop a nuke on our largest city; the very city he wishes to visit.
The IRGC, to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to Raisi are all radical Islamists who despise America actively try to kill former U.S. senior officials.
Diving into who Ebrahim Raisi is and why the Iranian people nicknamed him "The Butcher," and why he should not be allowed to step foot on U.S. soil next month:
By all accounts, Raisi is a radical Islamist who is considered a hardliner by both the left and right. He was handpicked by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to be the leading candidate in the 2021 elections.
He won with roughly 60% of the votes cast.
Raisi’s relationship predates the current leader Khamenei.
He previously served in many positions under Ayatollah Khomenei, and following Khomenei’s death. He served in many roles in the judicial system: from deputy prosecutor to prosecutor, to deputy chief justice, to attorney general, to his most recent position before ascending the presidency — chief justice.
The preceding detail is illustrative of Raisi's has long-standing ties to the Khomenei/Khamenei regime.
A regime which has systematically murdered thousands of innocent Iranian citizens, increased funding to their terrorist proxies, whose main mission is the eradication of the globe's only Jewish state, and who has waged proxy wars with America for years.
Raisi is not just the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, he is hand-picked successor to the brand of terrorism supportive of the Khomenei/Khamenei regime.
Raisi is under U.S. sanctions, and that merits more discussion:
In 2019 under President Donald J. Trump, Raisi was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Treasury for "complicity in serious human rights violations."
Raisi was sanctioned in 2019. At that time, he was chief justice but he was sanctioned for playing a leading role in the mass executions of detained Iranians in 1988 when he was the chief prosecutor in Tehran’s revolutionary court.
A court that no Americans would recognize because in this court, there is no due process or trial by a jury of one's peers — there is merely the chief prosecutor (in this case Raisi) and a hand-picked judge by Khamenei’s inner circle, who are there to implement the radical version of Islam and shariah law; a code that Khamenei has used to rule the Islamic Republic tyranically.
Raisi received the nickname "The Butcher" from the Iranian people due to his direct role in the execution of thousands of Iranian citizens.
Khamenei, through Raisi and other regime radicals have not only terrorized their own people for decades but they are solely responsible for the growth of U.S.-recognized foreign terrorist organizations. Hamas and Hezbollah come to mind.
These two groups received the vast majority of their funding from Tehran, and they share in Khamenei’s view to eradicate Israel, or as they call it, "The Zionist State, "or "Zionists."
This critical information leads to another point:
The U.N. has a deplorable record of being openly hostile of Israel while concurrently ignoring vast human rights violations inside the Islamic Republic.
It’s the height of hypocrisy for the U.N. to pour gasoline on a fire by giving Raisi a platform to give a speech; an address which will most certainly call for the eradication of Israel while espousing hatred for America.
Most recently, the "U.N. Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem" came under fire, and rightly so, for publishing an antisemtic report targeting Israel.
One of the Commission’s members, Miloon Kothari, said during a TV interview "We are very disheartened by the social media that is controlled largely by — whether it’s the Jewish Lobby or it’s the specific NGOs."
Kothari has previously called for Israel to be dismantled.
My message is simple: President Biden should use this opportunity to send a clear message to the Khamenei regime that Ebrahim Raisi is not at all welcome on U.S. soil.
In addition to closing U.S. airspace to him, Biden should deny his entry visa.
Biden's record of appeasing Tehran by not enforcing existing sanctions, to engaging in 15-plus months of diplomatic negotiations to re-enter the failed Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is clearly not working.
This is Biden’s chance to make it abundantly clear to Tehran that we are not their allies and that we will not remain idle as they continue to endanger America’s strongest ally, Israel — while threatening America.
Will our nation's 46th president seize his moment; stepping up and doing the right thing, or bury his head in the sand, while continuing to stubbornly adhere to a failed strategy of appeasement?
Many nervously await the answer.
Bryan E. Leib is the Executive Director of Iranian Americans for Liberty. Formerly, he served as the National Director for Americans Against Antisemitism and in 2018, he was a GOP Endorsed Congressional Candidate (PA-03). He tweets at @Bryan_E_Leib. Read Bryan E. Leib's Reports — More Here.
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