Invited by Russia, Iran’s Foreign Minister Arrives at UN Despite Reports of Tehran Assassination Plot Against Trump

The acting foreign minister of the Islamic Republic, Ali Bagheri Kani, is freely propagandizing at New York this week, even though an Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump has recently been widely reported. Mr. Kani’s visit to the United Nations headquarters is facilitated by Russia, which holds the Security Council’s presidency for the month of July. Moscow’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, invited counterparts to attend a monthly UN meeting dedicated to bashing Israel, and the Iranian official answered the call.The Department of State dutifully approved an entry visa to Mr. Kani, who, in addition to attending the UN session, granted interviews to seemingly sympathetic American reporters, including Newsweek’s Tom O’Connor and CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.In the wake of the reports of the Iranian plot against an American presidential candidate, Mr. Kani “should be on a plane back to Tehran not in a CNN studio in NYC,” the policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran, Jason Brodsky, writes on X. Following the 2020 American drone attack that killed the top Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander, Qassem Soleimani, the FBI uncovered several Iranian plots to assassinate Trump-era officials. The Secret Service added extra protections for a former national security adviser, John Bolton, a former state secretary, Mike Pompeo, and a former Iran envoy, Brian Hook.Several news agencies reported on Tuesday that prior to Saturday’s shooting that apparently grazed Mr. Trump’s ear at Butler, Pennsylvania, the National Security Council ordered the Secret Service to beef up security measures for the former president. The reason, as described in the New York Times Tuesday, was the “potential Iranian assassination plot against” Mr. Trump. Beyond Washington officials, several American citizens Tehran considers its enemies are under increased protection following assassination attempts. In one such case the IRGC hired members of an international criminal ring to kill a journalist and activist, Massih Alinejad, according to court papers. Mr. Kani is attempting to gloss over the regime’s thirst for murderous revenge in hazy legalistic language. “The Islamic Republic of Iran, immediately following the assassination of General Soleimani, tried to employ judicially legal procedures against the perpetrators, to bring them to justice,” Mr. Kani told CNN in a video snippet released Wednesday. “Those who are accused in these cases” must be “brought to justice.”At the same time, Mr. Kani told Newsweek that Tehran is “open to resuming negotiations with Washington toward restoring mutual participation in a nuclear deal.” He also bragged that “Israel is losing in the war” against his regime’s Mideast proxies. Yet, speaking at the UN Wednesday, Mr. Kani insisted that the Islamic Republic “has always been a positive element in the region,” while Israel is “not a legitimate state. It’s an occupying regime.”Unlike in past sessions, no diplomat — not even the American UN ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield — left the floor while Mr. Kani expressed Iran’s genocidal sentiments. Earlier, the Israeli UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, displayed a photo of a “digital countdown clock in Tehran, showing how many days remain until the destruction of Israel, by the year 2040.” It’s a “disgrace” that Security Council members ignore Tehran’s intentions, he said.Mr. Lavrov curiously accused America of ignoring that Mr. Erdan strayed from the topic of the session, which is a monthly meeting that the Security Council has conducted for decades, titled, “the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.” As is usually the case, the vast majority of speakers on Wednesday directed the bulk of their condemnation at Israel. Ms. Thomas-Greenfield, for one, decried the humanitarian conditions in Gaza and urged Israel to “take additional immediate steps to eliminate barriers to the delivery of aid at scale.”As Russia assumed the council’s presidency, Mr. Lavrov decided to elevate the routine anti-Israel session, inviting foreign ministers, rather than the usual ambassadors, to participate. While none of the current council members dispatched foreign ministers, Iran and several Arab countries asked to join the session at that level. Mr. Erdan barely addressed Gaza in his speech, highlighting instead the aggression of Hamas, Iraqi and Syrian militias, the Houthis, and Hezbollah. “All these terrorist groups have one thing in common: They’re financed, trained, and armed by Iran,” he said. “But you are burying your heads in the sand. Why?” According to the treaty that has placed the UN headquarters on American soil, Washington is obligated to allow access to all representatives of member states who wish to participate in UN activities. Yet, several administrations, including President Obama’s, have blocked entry to Iranian diplomats based on an American law that mandates denial of visas to anyone posing a “security, terrorism, or foreign policy” threat to America.Although Mr. Kani represents a regime that poses such direct threats, he was a welcome guest at Turtle Bay on Wednesday, as well as at several accommodating American television studios.

Invited by Russia, Iran’s Foreign Minister Arrives at UN Despite Reports of Tehran Assassination Plot Against Trump

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