Iran’s president-elect has ruled out meeting with President Joe Biden, after a key election rival said he would be willing to meet with the US president.
Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline Iranian cleric and Chief Justice of Iran, was elected Friday in a landslide, receiving 62% of the vote.
While he is set to take office only in August, Raisi has already ruled out any possible meeting with President Joe Biden, responding to queries Monday regarding such a meeting with a one word response: “No”.
Raisi also defended his role in a series of mass executions in 1988 – executions which led some to call Raisi the “Butcher of Tehran”. Some 5,000 people were killed in the executions, which critics calling them a purging of political prisoners. Raisi was a member of a so-called “death panel” which sentenced prisoners to death during the mass executions.
“I defended human rights, and I will continue to do so,” Raisi said Monday.