Jerusalem urges EU to reverse ‘shameful’ decision to send diplomat to ceremony for ‘butcher of Tehran’; cites deadly attack on oil tanker, Ebrahim Raisi’s human rights violations
Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Monday condemned a European Union decision to send diplomat Enrique Mora to this week’s inauguration of Iran’s new president Ebrahim Raisi, saying the gesture was a “shameful” display of “poor judgment.”
The ultraconservative Raisi, 60, is set to be inaugurated by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Tuesday and sworn in before parliament two days later.
The decision “is puzzling and shows poor judgment,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The participation of the EU representative in the ceremony comes just a few days after Iran killed two civilians, one of whom was from an EU member state, in an act of state terrorism against civilian shipping.”
Israel, Britain and the United States have blamed Iran for an attack on an oil tanker off Oman last week.
The strike killed a British security guard and a Romanian crew member. The ship was operated by Zodiac Maritime, which is owned by an Israeli billionaire.
Israel also condemned the EU’s participation “in light of the fact that the new Iranian president has the blood of thousands of Iranian citizens on his hands” and said the move lends “legitimacy to the attack [on the oil tanker] and the aggressive policy of the ayatollahs’ regime.”
“Flattery and subservience to violent totalitarian regimes only invites more violence and aggression,” the statement said.
“We strongly urge the EU to quickly cancel its shameful participation in the inauguration of the ‘butcher of Tehran,’” the Foreign Ministry said.
Raisi is on a blacklist of Iranian officials sanctioned by Washington, due to his complicity in the “brutal crackdown” on protests and “extrajudicial executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988.”
Amnesty International has accused Raisi of having played a key role as a prosecutor on the “death commission” that sent thousands of prisoners to their deaths in 1988, described as a crime against humanity by the rights group.
A UN official tasked with investigating human rights in Iran backed last month an independent probe into the role of Raisi in the mass state-ordered executions.
The cleric, a former student of Khamenei, is seen by many Iran observers as Iran’s most “compatible” president with the supreme leader since Khamenei took the role in 1989.
Asr eported by The Times of Israel