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From the people who brought you Eli Copter, meet Amit Nakesh

By: Douglas Murray

Published: May 21, 2024

THE President of Iran died at the weekend in a helicopter accident – news that the BBC marked with the headline “President Ebrahim Raisi’s mixed legacy in Iran”.

“Mixed legacy” is an interesting way to sum up the life of someone better known as the “Butcher of Tehran”.

Raisi rose through the ranks of the revolutionary Islamic Government that overthrew the Shah in 1979.

And he made his name in the usual revolutionary Islamic way.

By killing his political opponents — including the leftists who the regime rounded up, imprisoned and murdered by the thousands in their jails.

Some of the obituaries have noted that Raisi helped speed up the backlog of trials in Iran.

That is true. He did it in the same way Stalin did — by killing his opponents fast.

The United Nations noted his passing in its own unique way.

At the Security Council, the member States were invited to stand and observe a minute’s silence for Raisi.

Those taking part shamefully included our own deputy ambassador to the UN, James Kariuki.

At the same time, Iranians were letting off fireworks and handing out sweets in their own streets.

There has been more mourning at the United Nations than there has been in Iran.

Perhaps that is because the Iranian people are the first ones who have had to suffer under the cruel rule of President Raisi.

It was on his watch that students and others who have protested against his regime have been abducted, tortured and killed.

It is Raisi’s regime which has overseen the harshest rule of Islamic law — which includes the hanging of women who have been raped.

That’s right. If you are a woman who has been raped in Iran, you are the culprit.

And you will be the one that is hanged.

Are the women who suffered that horror worth a minute’s silence at the UN? I would have said so.

Is their hangman? I’d have said not. Yet the UN and others continued with this gross spectacle.

Today, the organisation flew its flags at half-mast at its HQ in New York.

How morally sick can an organisation be?

We seem to have come to the stage where international bodies, as well as some sick people at home, will love anyone so long as that person hates us.

And Raisi and his foreign minister, who died with him, certainly did hate us.

Theirs is a regime which has, for 44 years, called for “Death to America” and “Death to the UK”.

It is a regime which has caused a numberless loss of lives inside Iran and in the wider region.

It is a regime which has been trying to expand its power in its own region and whose assassins have made it as far as New York and London.

Only last month, a member of the Iranian opposition was stabbed outside his house in London.

Almost certainly by assassins sent to the UK by the government in Iran.

All the time, Raisi and his friends have tried to make their regime invincible by gaining a nuclear weapon.

So far they have had that project delayed many times.

But they still seek the bomb and are one of the very few regimes on Earth that has said they would like to use it.

We should take them at their word.

It is the regime in Iran that has, for years, funded and trained terrorists across the region and indeed the world.

‘Mass slaughter’

In October last year, when Hamas terrorists broke into Israel and carried out the largest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, it was Iran which backed them.

It is Iran that has funded Hamas. It is Iran that has trained Hamas. And it is Iran that has armed Hamas.

Just as they have also trained, funded and armed their other terrorist groups.

Notably in Yemen. Where Iran’s Houthi friends have fired missiles and attacked British ships.

But also in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, where Iran’s weapons have killed British and American soldiers.

And that is before even getting on to the 150,000 missiles Iran has helped Hezbollah store up in southern Lebanon.

Or the drones and other munitions it has been giving to Vladimir Putin’s Russia as he tries to overrun Ukraine.

All of his foul life, Raisi hoped to start and win a massive regional war.

Why should the man who oversaw all this and very much more be given any respect?

You might say it makes political sense to keep doors open — as most of our Foreign Office seems to think.

But it is quite another thing to mourn, or lament, the passing of this man.

The BBC, Foreign Office and United Nations may not know what a tyrant is. But the Iranian people do.

If only we could show that we are on their side.

We could start by showing that we are also on our own.

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Good fucking riddance. The Earth is a better place with him as a splatter stain upon it.

By: Akhtar Makoii

Published: May 20, 2024

Defiant acts of celebration broke out in Iran as state television broadcasted footage of mourning following the death of president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash.

Fireworks were set off in several cities on Monday night and some people posted videos of themselves dancing in the streets early on Tuesday.

However, the open displays of celebration were limited as dissent is often met with a strict crackdown by the hardline regime.

In one video showing fireworks, a woman’s voice can be heard saying: “People are rejoicing at the downfall of Raisi.”

“People are celebrating and I congratulate the president’s death,” said another man over another clip. “I hope the rest of them die too.”

People in the capital Tehran told The Telegraph there was a heavy presence of armed security forces in several neighbourhoods.

“I went up to the roof last night, and there were fireworks in several parts of the city,” a resident of Karaj, near the capital Tehran, said.

“I also heard people chanting ‘death to the dictator’ somewhere close by,” he added.

Many Iranians celebrated in secret and some people told the Telegraph they stayed awake waiting for “good news to come out of the mountains”.

“I was on my phone all night and when I finally saw the news, I jumped from bed and started dancing,” a man in Tehran said.

“I went to a nearby shop, and it was incredible. The shopkeeper, whom I know, gave me a free cigarette and said, ‘Let’s hope for more crashes like this’,” he said.

The mother of a Kurdish prisoner executed earlier this year posted a video of herself dancing upon hearing the news of Raisi’s death.

A shopkeeper in central Isfahan said he experienced a surge in selling sweets on Monday as people “keep coming to celebrate”.

“It’s very strange and good, people come and congratulate me for the death of Raisi,” he said. “It’s been a long time since I saw something like this.”

“Many are hiding their happiness because they are afraid of government spies and worried about the subsequent consequences,” he added.

On Monday afternoon, state TV continued to broadcast scenes of mourning and tearful individuals.

“I don’t know what to say,” said a crying man. “I’m shocked, and I hope God helps people in these grieving times,” said another.

“He lost his life while serving the nation, which made me very sad,” said a man in a mosque where people had gathered to mourn. “He held a special place in people’s hearts.”

Mourning songs and live footage of memorials played continuously on several state channels.

Many changed their logos to black and aired tributes about how “beloved and close to the people the martyred president” was, highlighting that he lost his life on the “flight of service”.

“The president set new benchmarks for good governance, and we hope his legacy continues,” a presenter said. “He accomplished significant feats and would have achieved even more if given more time.”

“He was a soldier of the Supreme Leader, and anyone who respected the Supreme Leader respected him as well. He was dedicated to the development of Iran,” an analyst said on state TV.

Iran’s president and his foreign minister were confirmed dead after the helicopter they were travelling in crashed in a mountainous region during bad weather on Sunday evening.

Rescuers reached the wreckage early Monday morning after a desperate search mission hampered by rain, fog and snow.

Mr Raisi won Iran’s closely stage-managed 2021 presidential election, a vote marked by the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history.

His victory brought all branches of power under the control of hardliners, after eight years in which the presidency had been held by Hassan Rouhani, a pragmatist who entered into a nuclear deal with Washington.

“These three years of Raisi were like a nightmare,” said a woman in her late 20s in northwestern Mashhad, Raisi’s hometown.

“I do not expect any big change to happen now, at least we can hope,” she added.

Under the code name “Noor” or “light” in Farsi, the Islamic Republic has intensified a clampdown on anyone violating its draconian female dress codes.

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To the Iranian people, who've suffered under this monster, congratulations.

A month ago, Raisi, the Butcher of Tehran, launched an unprecedented missile and drone strike on Israel to murder thousands of innocent Israelis. Deliberately. The blood of thousands of innocent Iranians on his hands. Women, members of the LGBTQ community, peaceful protesters and many, many others. He is responsible for butchering thousands around the globe. Thousands.

This is who the Security Council dedicates a moment of silence to? A terrorist? A man who murdered, oppressed and imprisoned so many? How can it be that your list of moral priorities is so distorted?

This Council, which has done nothing, nothing to advance the release of our hostages commemorates the man responsible for their suffering.

What's next? Will the Council hold a moment of silence for bin Laden? Will there be a vigil for Hitler?

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