Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday criticized “Western admirers” who offered condolences for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi after he died in a helicopter crash.
“I suspect a great many Iranians would rather Western admirers stop lionizing a man known as the 'Butcher of Tehran' for executing political prisoners,” McConnell said. “They might prefer that foreign leaders not further legitimize the regime that actively represses all of them.”
Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian were killed on Sunday in a helicopter crash that resulted from a “technical failure,” Iranian state news media reported.
McConnell on the Senate floor criticized the response from “sympathetic regimes.”
“The condolences from sympathetic regimes were swift. The PRC declared that, 'The Chinese people had lost a good friend.' The Kremlin mourned a 'reliable partner.' And Prime Minister Orbán of Hungary, whose government has pursued deeper trade relations with Tehran in spite of Western sanctions, offered his thoughts and prayers,” the Kentucky Republican said.
“Well, I too would like to extend my condolences to the people of Iran — for their long suffering under the brutal theocratic rule of the Islamic Republic,” McConnell said.
