www.thereset.news By Yashar Ali
Biden must designate senior leaders of Iran’s government as ineligible to enter the United States, but that should be the first of many steps to punish the Iranian government for its malign behavior.
In mid-September, an aircraft with Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi aboard will land at New York’s JFK airport.
Even though the United States does not have diplomatic relations with the Iranian government, from the moment Raisi steps off his plane, he will be under the protection of the US Secret Service.
Raisi, who will be in New York to attend the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, will be greeted at JFK with a large motorcade of fully armored vehicles.
In addition, Secret Service tactical, hazmat, and technical support teams will be deployed as part of the protection Raisi will receive as long as he’s on US soil.
A high-level Secret Service source who spoke to me on the condition of anonymity said that Raisi, like his predecessors, will receive a similar level of protection to a sitting US Vice-President.
Leaders from US allies France, Germany, and the UK also receive a similar level of protection.
While Raisi will be enveloped in a significant security bubble thanks to American taxpayers, US citizens who are targets of Raisi’s government will be installed in safe houses, apartments, and homes under assumed names, and looking over their shoulders.
Dozens of US Secret Service agents will be ready to take a bullet for a man whose government has authorized and funded operations against innocent US citizens on American soil.
Iranian leaders receiving significant taxpayer-funded protection may be news to some readers, but it’s the way it has always been.
US law requires the Secret Service to protect foreign heads of state and heads of government while in the United States. International law also requires the US government to protect embassies, consulates, foreign dignitaries, and diplomats.
And whether it’s the law or not, the United States should always protect visiting heads of state and top government leaders. If any of them were to be assassinated or injured, it would be a significant diplomatic and security incident that would put American government leaders at risk in the future.
But the Iranian government’s aggression on US soil in the past two years towards dissidents, writers, US government leaders, and other targets of the Islamic Republic makes the presence of President Raisi and other senior Iranian government leaders in the United States unacceptable.
And the fact that US citizens, using taxpayer funds, would be required to protect these Iranian government leaders is inappropriate.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken must decline to issue visas to Raisi and his delegation for the UN General Assembly week.
Blinken should also ban senior Iranian government leaders, including Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, from entering the United States for the foreseeable future.
Every year in September, over 100 heads of state and government leaders, along with their delegations, gather in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.
Under the 1947 UN headquarters agreement, the United States agreed that it would “not impose any impediments to transit to or from the headquarters district of representatives of Members or officials of the United Nations.” . . .
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