UN General Assembly
Iran’s President Raisi leaves for New York
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi will attend the UN General Assembly for the first time in his term. photo
© –/Office of the Iranian Presidency/AP/dpa
Iranian President Raisi is expected to attend the current UN General Assembly for the first time. It was said that he wanted to correct the image of his country in the world.
Iran’s President Raisi has traveled to New York for the first time in his term of office to attend the UN General Assembly. Raisi left with his delegation on Monday, the Iranian news agency Isna reported. Raisi wants to use the trip to put Iran’s image in the right light in the world and to draw attention to the effects of the US sanctions, according to a statement from the President’s Office. A meeting with President Joe Biden or other US politicians is not planned.
The trip is likely to be overshadowed by the death of 22-year-old Iranian Mahsa Amini. The young woman fell into a coma in police custody and died on Friday. Since then, the Iranian government has been in need of explanations – there has also been a lot of dismay and protest internationally.
The arch-conservative politician Raisi is also on a sanctions list in the USA of people whose assets could be frozen and whose participation in international banking could be made more difficult. According to the Ministry of Finance, Raisi was accused of human rights abuses during his time as Attorney General in Tehran. He is also said to be one of the main perpetrators of the mass execution of political prisoners in 1988.
In recent years there have been repeated tensions with the West over Iran’s nuclear program. Efforts to revive the 2015 Vienna nuclear deal – designed to prevent the country from building nuclear bombs – are back on hold after some hopeful signs this summer. The USA under Donald Trump left the deal in 2018 and imposed severe sanctions. Since then, Tehran has been increasingly trying to find allies in Asia.
Report at Isna (Persian)