NEW YORK — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi questioned the current world order before the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, singling out former President Donald Trump for killing Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds Force leader Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a 2020 drone strike.
Raisi praised Soleimani, who directed Iran’s extraterritorial and clandestine military operations until his death, as “a freedom-seeking man who became a martyr” when Trump approved the “savage,” “illegal,” and “immoral” attack while Soleimani was in Iraq.
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“The fate of other countries has shown America has pursued her own interests at the expense of other countries,” Raisi said Wednesday through a translator, later holding up a photo of Soleimani and pledging to pursue “a fair tribunal to seek justice.”
Raisi, whose Holocaust denial and scrutiny of Israel caused Israeli U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan to walk out of the hall, criticized Trump for “trampling” on the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal. Raisi, ignoring his country’s own human rights problems, also described sanctions as “weapons of mass destruction,” but claimed Trump’s “maximum pressure” on his economy had failed.
Of Iran’s negotiations with President Joe Biden, Raisi, adamant his country’s nuclear program was for “human and peaceful endeavors,” reiterated his need for guarantees and assurances based on “lived experience.”
“While today they talk about observing their commitments to this deal, they keep repeating the stories of that past,” he said.
During his own address, Biden is expected to underscore his preparedness to return to compliance if Iran is as well, according to U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
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“I do believe that there will be multiple opportunities for us to consult with the other members of the P5+1, especially the Europeans, while we’re in New York,” Sullivan told reporters Tuesday of the U.N. Security Council’s permanent members, plus Germany. “Iran, of course, will be having its own engagements, not with any of the American delegation, but with other delegations.”
