Israeli Ambassador to the UN, told Iran International, “It’s unacceptable that… they treat a mass murderer, the Butcher of Tehran, President Raisi, with a red carpet.”
Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Gilad Erdan said, “he cannot be so respected here while he’s oppressing, executing, murdering his own people.”
Ebrahim Raisi was a member of the infamous Death Committee which oversaw summary execution of up to 5,000 thousand Iranian political prisoners in 1988.
Raisi’s speech at the UN General Assembly last Tuesday coincided with the first anniversary of the killing of Mahsa amini.
Amini was a 22-year old women arrested in Tehran because the police felt her hair wasn’t covered properly. She was hit on the head in custody and died in hospital on 16 September 2022.
Her killing sparked a wave of protests that challenged the foundations of the Islamic Republic like never before. More than 500 protesters were killed, and thousands injured by armed forces and thugs loyal to the regime. Security forces arrested 22,000 people and seven protesters were hanged.
Ambassador Erdan made headlines a few days ago when he held up a poster of Mahsa Amini with the caption “Iranian women deserve freedom” during Raisi's speech at the General Assembly.
“It’s quite sad to see the people in Isfaham don’t have water and all the money is spent on weapons of mass destruction, on arming their terrorist proxis in the region,” Erdan said in a chat with Fardad Farahzad of Iran Internation TV in New York.
He did reiterate the Israeli position that the regime in Iran and its nuclear ambitions should be a source of concern for “the entire world” but also a blessing in disguise.
“In some ways we should be thanking Iran,” Erdan said, “because they’re one of the reasons why all the moderate countries in the region that are looking to the future and care for their children, they are creating an alliance.”
Arab-Israeli relations have improved significantly in recent years. It was one of the major topics of discussion when Benjamin Netanyahu and President Biden met on the sidelines of the UN General Assmebly.
Netanyahu expressed optimist in that meeting that a “historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia” can be reached under Biden’s “leadership”.
The sentiment was echoed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in a rare interview with Fox News that was aired 20 September.
“Every day we get closer,” he said, when he was asked about the normalization of relations with Israel.
Ambassador Erdan emphasized the significance of this remark in his interview with Fardad Farahzad.
“These statements are historic. You could never hear the leader of Saudi Arabia saying these things publicly. And obviously when the President of the United States feels that he can also talk about it, it means that they know that it’s a matter of time.”
In the same interview with Fox News, the Saudi Crown Prince said that if Iran gets nuclear weapons, “we have to get one, for security reasons, for ballancing power in the Middle Ease. But we don’t want to see that.”