Iran’s president-elect says ‘no’ to meeting Joe Biden
Iran's new President-elect Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a press conference in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s president-elect says he’s not willing to meet President Joe Biden.
Ebrahim Raisi, when asked about possibly meeting Biden, simply said: “No.”
Raisi’s moderate competitor in the recent election, Abdolnasser Hemmati, said he’d be willing to potentially meet Biden.
Meanwhile, Raisi called himself “a defender of human rights” after being asked directly about his involvement in the 1988 mass executions of some 5,000 people. Raisi was part of a so-called “death panel” that sentenced political prisoners to death at the end of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.
Raisi made the comments Monday in a news conference with journalists, his first since winning Friday’s election in a landslide.