Raisi at UNGA: Israel Is ‘Savage Power,’ West Has ‘Double Standard’

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi called on the United States to guarantee that it will not leave a revitalized nuclear deal like it did four years ago, and criticized the West’s double standard when it comes to Israel in a wide-ranging speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

“The region has not seen previously such an occupying savage power such as the Zionist regime in its midst in the past. The killing of children and women are present in the dark report card of the Zionist regime,” Raisi said, adding: “The killing of Palestinian women and children and new generations shows everyone that seven decades of Israeli occupation and savagery is still with us,” he says. He proposed a one-state solution to be approved in a vote by “all Palestinians: “Muslims, Christians and Jews.”

Raisi railed against US sanctions on the Islamic Republic, charging that “the United States keeps equivocating militarism with security and has pursued its interests in the world at the expense of other countries.”

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, walks out of the General Assembly at the start of Raisi’s speech, leaving a picture of his grandparents, who survived the Holocaust, at his seat. In an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,”, Raisi called the Holocaust into question. When asked whether he believed the Holocaust happened, Raisi said there “are some signs that it happened,” adding” “If so, they should allow it to be investigated and researched.”

In his address on Wednesday to the UNGA, US President Joe Biden reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to the two-state solution and reiterated his commitment to Israel’s security. “The United States is committed to Israel’s security. Full stop. A negotiated two-state solution remains in our view the best way to ensure Israel’s security and prosperity … and give the Palestinians a state to which they are entitled — both sides fully respecting the equal rights of their citizens, both people enjoying equal measures of freedom and dignity,” he said.

President Biden also said that the US is committed to returning to the nuclear deal with Iran. “The United States is clear. We will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. We continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome,” the US president said.