September 23, 2022
When Iran announced that President Raisi would attend the UN General Assembly in late September, it set off one campaign in the US to lobby President Biden to deny him a visa and another campaign to have Raisi arrested for mass murder if he made it to New York.
It is routine for the out-party in the US to lobby the president to deny entry to chiefs of state the out-party views as most foul. The most famous such instance came in the 1960s when Republicans demanded that Fidel Castro be stopped from speaking to the UN General Assembly.
However, the US has an agreement with the UN obligating it to allow foreign heads of government to attend the UN. It has never stopped any president, prime minister, king or emperor from attending the UN General Assembly, despite repeated efforts to keep unsavory people out. And that wasn’t going to change this time.
What’s new this time is that the Mojahedin-e Khalq have gone to court asking a federal judge to order the arrest of Raisi for torture and murder for his role in sending many dissidents, primarily members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq, to their deaths in 1988.
It is “beyond doubt that as deputy state prosecutor for Tehran province, Ebrahim Raisi, was a member of that death commission,” Steven Schneebaum, the lead attorney in the lawsuit, told a Washington press conference August 25.
The suit cites Amnesty International and US sanctions declarations that accuse Raisi of complicity in the 1988 executions.
The suit challenges the notion that Raisi enjoys immunity under US law as a head of state or official representative attending the annual UN meeting.
Schneebaum said Raisi is not a diplomat accredited to the United Nations and, while he is president, Iran’s real head of state is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi.
“Raisi is not a diplomat … and is not eligible for the privileges extended under the Vienna Convention. Nor is he in fact a head of state,” Schneebaum said.
If US authorities accepted those arguments, they could serve Raisi with a warrant when he arrived in New York. He would then be required to submit a plea within 21 days, said Schneebaum.
Asked about Raisi’s attendance, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said, “As host nation of the UN, the US is generally obligated under the UN Headquarters Agreement to issue visas to representatives of UN member states to travel to the UN headquarters district.”
Raisi is not a diplomat, but few chiefs of state or chiefs of government are professional diplomats.
Raisi’s visit to the UN was his first. Last year, he sent a videotaped message. His speech this year was noted for the fact that he lofted a large color photograph of the late Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleymani. It is not normal for speakers to use graphics in the UN General Assembly. In fact, the only person known to have done so before is Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who hoisted a cartoon bomb in denouncing the Islamic Republic a few years ago.
Raisi announced that Iran would seek justice for Soleymani by suing the Americans who carried out the assassination. That was a change. In Iran, officials have spent the last 2-1/2 years swearing “revenge” for the murder.