The heads of state and government from most of the UN’s 193 member states gathered last week at the organization’s famous New York City building to attend the 77th UN General Assembly. One of the attendees, whose presence was questionable and was objected to, was the ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran. Ironically, he was sanctioned by Washington in 2019 over his complicity in numerous human rights violations. His crimes included a reported involvement in the mass execution of thousands of Iranian political prisoners in 1988. His arrival in New York raised several inquiries and concerns, including questions about who gave the green light to allow Raisi to attend the important UNGA event at such a critical time. Who approved granting him an entry visa and allowed him to roam the streets of a country that he wants to destroy and whose citizens he wants to kill? On his flight to New York, Raisi told reporters that he was going to the US to convey the message of the Iranian people to the whole world. “I remembered the martyrs; we must convey their voice by implementing the order. This opportunity is not our opportunity. I said at Mehrabad Airport that martyr (Qassem) Soleimani made this opportunity. The Iranian people are the ones who created this force,” he said of his attendance at the UNGA. The US administration needs someone to remind it that hundreds of thousands of Iranians have been killed, imprisoned, tortured or executed by the regime headed by our criminal guest. According to the June intelligence report of the National Counterterrorism Center, the Iranian leadership was relentlessly looking for ways to avenge the killing of the brutal murderer Soleimani in January 2020, when former President Donald Trump approved a drone strike while the Quds Force commander was on a trip to Iraq. Under Raisi’s watch, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps plotted to kill former US National Security Adviser John Bolton. Iran has also publicly expressed a willingness to conduct lethal operations on US soil since Raisi became president. Other reported targets include former President Donald Trump, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former US Central Command commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie. “Iran would probably view the killing or prosecution of a US official it considers equivalent in rank and stature to Soleimani or responsible for his death as successful retaliatory actions,” the intelligence report read. Raisi should never have been permitted to stand and stain American soil with the blood of his innocent victims. Dalia Al-Aqidi Adding insult to injury, Raisi’s vulgarity reached the point of raising a photo of the brutal terrorist Soleimani under the dome of the UN building. In case he does not recall, someone should notify President Joe Biden that Soleimani had killed hundreds of American soldiers and thousands of civilians by instructing his militias in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon. Soleimani also planned to assassinate foreign diplomats and US citizens on American soil. Raisi, who is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s favorite, and former Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, along with many others, should never have been permitted to stand and stain American soil with the blood of their innocent victims. And they should never be allowed to use US social media platforms to threaten the American people or spew their hatred and radical ideology. The US Department of State, headed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, has managed to insult all the families of the soldiers who were killed in Iraq by Iranian proxy militias, drones or missiles. It also insulted the 1.5 million Iranian Americans who have fled the tyranny of the regime. And, finally, it has insulted every woman in Iran and around the globe who is protesting right now against the oppression of the tyrants of Tehran. A 22-year-old woman just got murdered by the very same people who were invited to the land of the free. Dalia Al-Aqidi is a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy. Twitter: @DaliaAlAqidi