One glaring issue goes unaddressed in UN chief's high-stakes talks with Iran's president
Seventy-eight hangings in August. The UN readout found room for diplomacy, not the rope.
Summary
- Fox News reports U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday at the SCO summit in Bishkek. The official readout cited humanitarian and economic fallout and a call for diplomacy. It did not mention detained protesters, torture claims, or executions.
- Spokesman Stephane Dujarric told Fox he had nothing to add to the readout, then said Guterres has raised those issues with senior Iranians in other meetings and opposes the death penalty everywhere.
- HRANA's Sept. 1 monthly report documented 78 executions in Iran in August, including two tied to January protests, plus 21 death sentences, six forced-confession cases, and nine denials of counsel. Iran International, citing rights groups on Aug. 7, said more than 60,000 were detained after the protests.
- HRANA said 13 January arrestees were sentenced to a combined 24 years, three months, and one day, with four also getting 196 lashes and one getting two years of exile. In Ardabil, about 800 were arrested; at least 54 remained in prison in early August, 29 still without a hearing.
Commentary
A shopkeeper in a wet parking lot still hears about a rope in another country and wants a U.N. page that can write the word hanging. He did not pay dues so a readout could own the silence.
Seventy-eight in August. Sixty thousand detained. Nothing to add. The honest dad already paid the dues. The readout paid the omission.
Ask every working mother who still believes a world body can name a noose: if 78 hangings cannot fit a readout, who still owns the podium?
Comments
Diplomacy in the readout. Rope in the HRANA table. That is the split.
I briefed a principal with the ugly paragraph first. Put the 78 in the first line.
Bishkek Tuesday. Dujarric: nothing to add. HRANA 78. 21 death sentences. Publish the four.
Allied missions still write executions in the cable. A humanitarian paragraph is a dodge.
60,000 detained. 196 lashes. Ardabil 800, 54 still in. File the provincial count.
I still hear a radio in a wet lot. I want the rope named before the diplomacy.
A January protester's mother does not need a second meeting. She needs the first readout.
Pezeshkian got the handshake. The hangman got the month. Do not confuse them.
Fox printed the omitted rope, 78, 60,000, and nothing to add. Argue those nouns.
Name the hangings. Cut the silence. A podium is not a rinse.
