In August, Ebrahim Raisi will become the Islamic Republic of Iran’s next president after surpassing the 50% threshold in the first round of voting.
Almost immediately, Amnesty International called for an investigation into Raisi’s role in the mass execution of political prisoners, an episode for which the United States sanctioned him during the Trump administration. Raisi’s rise has been a long time coming, but the Biden administration appears focused only on what his presidency could mean for nuclear negotiations. The White House appears determined to try to conclude a deal before President Hassan Rouhani leaves office. Raisi, after all, may not reappoint Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, whose honesty and pragmatism U.S. liberals have long exaggerated.
Whether or not negotiators are able to come to a deal now that the clock ticks down on the final two months of Rouhani’s tenure, a new test looms for President Joe Biden. Namely, whether or not to grant Raisi a visa to address the U.N. General Assembly in New York City.
Dozens of world leaders flock to the annual confab in September. Their speeches can set the diplomatic stage for the year to come. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev brandished his shoe to protest a discussion of true independence for the Soviet Union’s Eastern European satellites. Three decades later, Mikhail Gorbachev used the U.N. podium to announce major cuts to Soviet forces in Eastern Europe. In 1974, Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat stood before the General Assembly and offered a choice between an olive branch and a gun. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of Iran’s nuclear program. Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez continued anti-Americanism when, a day after President George W. Bush spoke, Chavez said, “The devil came here yesterday … It still smells of sulfur.”
As important as the speeches are the sidebars. Some world leaders engage after their delegations spontaneously cross paths; others speak after their aides painstakingly manufacture a hallway meeting.
But one of the biggest questions for the State Department is who gets a visa. Especially, that is, when it comes to state sponsors of terror and others whom the U.S. considers rogues. In 2019, for example, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov slammed the U.S. after the State Department refused to grant 10 Russian diplomats visas. Iranian officials complained that the State Department did not grant them visas until the last moment. During Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency, the State Department frequently limited visas available for the Iranian delegation. The Reagan administration denied Arafat a visa to attend the General Assembly in 1988. At issue is not only the symbolism of the visa, but valid security concerns: Diplomats can bring in weapons, money, and spy tools unchecked. When diplomats work for terror sponsors, such concern increases exponentially.
Biden promised he would return human rights to the center of U.S. policy. Last month, the White House bragged that it was advancing gay and transgender rights at home and aboard. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Biden declared, “The Holocaust was no accident of history. It occurred because too many governments cold-bloodedly adopted and implemented hate-fueled laws, policies, and practices to vilify and dehumanize entire groups of people, and too many individuals stood by silently.” Biden then added, “Silence is complicity.” This year, the General Assembly will coincide with Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
That matters because in Raisi, Biden faces a man who not only laughed as he condemned thousands to death, but one who will lead a country that regularly calls for a new Holocaust. The question for Biden is whether, through his silence and inaction, he will be complicit in Raisi’s agenda. Certainly, America’s enemies might condemn Biden for denying Raisi a visa. The U.N. might duly report its own concerns. Still, sometimes, the diplomatic equivalent of a misdemeanor might be worth it, if only to reinforce that human rights and principles still matter.
Michael Rubin (@Mrubin1971) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential. He is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
