The United Nations Security Council is taking heat after its members held a moment of silence in the memory of the late-Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
On Monday, Iranian state television reported Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and seven other passengers were killed when the helicopter they were traveling in crash in the northwestern part of the country.
Hours later, members of the Security Council were seen standing during a moment of silence:
Raisi, the second-most powerful official in Iran, oversaw the harsh crackdown on protesters after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was killed.
Forbes notes, “Raisi served as the prosecutor general of Tehran between 1989 and 1994, when he earned the nickname ‘Butcher of Tehran.’ He participated in a so-called death commission that ordered the executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988. He was then appointed as chair of the General Inspection Office, which oversees the legality of the government, in 1994 before moving up the ranks of the judicial system to ultimately become the country’s chief justice.”
The decision to hold a moment of silence in his memory did not go over well:
The U.N. was not the only institution to take heat for its response to Raisi’s death. NATO was also criticized after its spokeswoman posted on X, “Our condolences to the people of [Iran] for the death of President Raisi, Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian, and others who perished in the helicopter crash.
