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Blinken Defends Condolences for Iranian President Raisi: ‘Normal Course of Business’
Breitbart ^ | 05/21/2024 | JOEL B. POLLAK

Posted on 05/21/2024 11:22:54 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday that offering condolences to Iran for the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on Sunday was the “normal course of business.”

The State Department issued a statement of condolences without mentioning Raisi’s brutal legacy, including the executions of thousands of political prisoners in the 1980s, and prosecuting pro-democracy activists more recently.

Raisi was also seen as a hardliner, and suppressed protests by women, including Mahsa Amini, resulting in what Breitbart News’ Frances Martel called “some of the most violent repression of dissidents caught on camera in Iran.”

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: blinken; business; condolences; raisi
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To: DoodleBob

We had diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. This is not analogous to the situation in Iran. The Iranians still occupy our Embassy compound in Tehran. They have turned it to a museum.

Hamas and Hezbollah are surrogates of Iran. Trump killed Soleimani. That should be the normal course of business.


21 posted on 05/21/2024 11:55:22 AM PDT by kabar
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To: ChicagoConservative27

So, um, did Truman send condolences to Germany when Hitler died in his Berlin bunker?


22 posted on 05/21/2024 12:01:09 PM PDT by Psalm 73 ("You'll never hear surf music again" - J. Hendrix)
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To: Psalm 73

Éamon de Valera PM of Ireland during the WWII period sent condolences to Germany through the embassy in Dublin. Some say he did it to poke the hated British in the eye.

I wonder if Switzerland or Sweden?


23 posted on 05/21/2024 12:07:25 PM PDT by Reily (!!q)
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To: Psalm 73

Éamon de Valera PM of Ireland during the WWII period sent condolences to Germany through the embassy in Dublin. Some say he did it to poke the hated British in the eye.

I wonder if Switzerland or Sweden?


24 posted on 05/21/2024 12:07:26 PM PDT by Reily (!!q)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Couldn’t image a less competent man

First he insults america by sending condolences for the death of an avowed enemy dictator and then he backs off saying it didn’t mean anything.

So everybody on earth is insulted by Blinken. Good decent people and terrorist murder gangsters alike.

Somebody has to reassign this fool to a job he can go. Like digging fence posts for our border wall. Just show him which end of the shovel is the handle


25 posted on 05/21/2024 12:17:51 PM PDT by faithhopecharity (“Politicians are not born. They're excreted.” Marcus Tillius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
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To: DoodleBob

In the Reagan era, the US and the USSR were adversaries but had normal diplomatic relations with each other for decades. The US and Iran do not have diplomatic relations. Neither do the US and Cuba.


26 posted on 05/21/2024 1:02:08 PM PDT by Rockingham (`)
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To: Psalm 73

Ike probably sent condolences after Stalin’s death despite him being a butcher. Plus he was a wartime ally.


27 posted on 05/21/2024 1:24:55 PM PDT by princeofdarkness
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To: ChicagoConservative27

It is no different than if we had sent condolences to Russia on the death of Lenin or Stalin.


28 posted on 05/21/2024 1:26:27 PM PDT by EastTexasTraveler
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Imagine in WWII if European leaders expressed their deepest condolences to Hitler on the untimely passing of Reinhard Heydrich.


29 posted on 05/21/2024 1:34:48 PM PDT by Enterprise
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To: granite
you should only speak good of the dead. He’s dead - GOOD!

That’s what many Iranians thought. They hated him too.

30 posted on 05/21/2024 2:16:32 PM PDT by Mark17 (Retired USAF air traffic controller. Father of Air Force pilot. Both bitten by the aviation bug)
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To: Flash Bazbeaux

How times have changed. This is what Bill Clinton had to say upon the occasion of Pol Pot’s death:

“The death of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot has again brought to international attention one of the most tragic chapters of inhumanity in the twentieth century. Between 1975 and 1979, Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge followers transformed Cambodia into the killing fields, causing the death of an estimated two million of their countrymen in a brutal attempt to transform Cambodian society.

“Although the opportunity to hold Pol Pot accountable for his monstrous crimes appears to have passed, senior Khmer Rouge, who exercised leadership from 1975 to 1979, are still at large and share responsibility for the monstrous human rights abuses committed during this period. We must not permit the death of the most notorious of the Khmer Rouge leaders to deter us from the equally important task of bringing these others to justice. And equally, we must renew our determination to prevent such atrocities from occurring in the future.

“Now is a time to remember the victims of Pol Pot’s murderous reign of terror and to underscore our determination to help the Cambodian people achieve a lasting peace based on respect for basic human rights and democratic principles.”


31 posted on 05/21/2024 2:42:22 PM PDT by FoxInSocks ("Hope is not a course of action." — M. O'Neal, USMC)
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To: kabar
We don’t even have diplomatic relations with Iran.

We did, until they invaded our Embassy. There is a level of fake, but necessary, politeness in international relations. But Iran has been using proxies to attack us for decades, so they can @!&$ right off. No need for this message, just. Ignore it.

32 posted on 05/21/2024 4:29:29 PM PDT by drop 50 and fire for effect ("Work relentlessly, accomplish much, remain in the background, and be more than you seem.")
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect

I remember when we had diplomatic relations. I was in our Embassy in Tehran on Feb 14,1979 when the Mojahedin seized our embassy the first time. We were held hostage for a few hours, unlike what happened later in the year on November 4.

The Iranians were responsible for many U.S. deaths in Iraq. Iran trained Hizballah killed 241 U.S. military personnel, including 220 Marines, 18 sailors, and three soldiers in a terrorist bombing of the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.

In 2006, a U.S. federal court found Hezbollah and Iran guilty of blowing up Kobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996 that killed six Americans and two Indian citizens and injured about 70 others.

Blinken is an embarrassment. He still wants to revive the JCPOA.


33 posted on 05/21/2024 5:27:53 PM PDT by kabar
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To: Rockingham; kabar

Good points. Thanks for the info.


34 posted on 05/21/2024 5:56:56 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s² )
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