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The death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in northern Iran this week has shocked the Middle East and the world. While his sudden death is unlikely to result in immediate changes within Iran, it is an opportunity for the Biden team to reset its approach and keep America, Israel, and the entire Middle East safe.
Unfortunately, the Biden administration has expressed “condolences” instead of deterring an administration focused on killing Americans and allies.
In remembering Raisi, we should not honor the man who earned the title “Butcher of Tehran” by serving as chief executioner during the 1988 massacre of tens of thousands of innocent Iranians. . He may have later earned the title of “president,” but at the end of the day, he was only the Ayatollah’s chief attendant.
President Ebrahim Raisi spoke at a press conference on August 29, 2022 in Tehran, Iran. (Iranian Presidential Office, via AP)
As the Ayatollah’s evil regime continued to plunder and plunder, Raisi’s job was to inflict pain on the Iranian people — a fact the world recently witnessed with the regime’s brutal crackdown in response to mass protests in 2022-2023.
‘New low’: Biden administration roundly criticised for response to death of ‘Butcher of Tehran’ Raisi
Raishi’s memory, if preserved at all, should be consigned to the darkest chapter of human history. The world is a better place without him.
For these reasons, it is extraordinary that our State Department expressed “official condolences” to the U.S. administration following news of Mr. Raisi’s death, citing our “assistance” to the Iranian people. It was an unconscionable and shameful thing to do.
This is a callous and obscene insult to Mr. Raisi’s countless victims. The people America should truly honor in his wake are the mothers, daughters, fathers and sons who believed in a better future for their country and were horrifically murdered by Mr. Raisi and his cohorts.
We must not forget young women like Mahsa Amini, who was murdered by Iran’s morality police for refusing to wear the hijab according to the regime’s standards, and we must express our condolences to her family and the many others who continue to lose loved ones to the regime’s brutal medieval oppression.
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While Raisi’s death is unexpected, it is unlikely that any immediate change or reform will occur within Iran, as the real power lies with Ayatollah Khamenei and the ruling clergy. Even if a reorganization is inevitable following Raisi’s resignation, the regime will continue to suppress domestic dissent as it pursues the development of nuclear weapons and seeks to destroy any country within its reach that does not bow to Israel, the United States, or any other state or its ideology.
Nevertheless, Raisi’s death presents an opportunity for the Biden administration to make meaningful and productive changes to Iran policy that benefit American interests and protect the security of Americans and allies. .
First, the administration should stop coddling the regime and its proxies and take swift action to remove the Houthis from the Red Sea and make international shipping lanes safe and accessible to commercial shipping again.
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Israel should be given full support as it enters the final stages of its operation to destroy Hamas. Doing so would send a clear message to both the administration and whoever Ayatollah Khamenei names as his successor that the current state of the Biden-Obama regime – a weak, deal-seeking America – is a thing of the past. right.
Additionally, the Biden administration and the world should do more to support the organized opposition movement inside Iran. Islamist leaders constantly insist that there is no alternative to their regime, yet they spend billions of dollars to demonize that alternative.
Mass nationwide protests like those we have seen in Iran over the past few years do not happen spontaneously or by chance. They happen because of organized groups that continue to advance their vision of a free Iran despite the regime’s brutality. These people deserve our support.
Sadly, the Biden administration’s condolences to the administration indicate that it has not learned from its mistakes.
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Iran has not learned that paying $6 billion in exchange for five American hostages will only encourage more hostage situations. Even after the Iranian proxy group Hamas took more Americans hostage on October 7th.
They have yet to learn that raiding empty warehouses and taking out a few knuckleheads in the desert only emboldens the administration’s attacks on American interests.
The government has yet to learn that failing to sanction the regime will simply allow it to make record profits without feeling any pressure to cease its malign activities.
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Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. Its power continues to grow as it deepens its ties with criminal actors such as Russia and China. And it is the biggest obstacle to achieving peace in the Middle East.
Four years ago, we had a president who understood these basic facts and took the steps necessary to keep America and the world safe. I hope that next year we will have that same president back in the Oval Office.
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