The World Economic Forum is being urged to exclude members of the from this week’s summit in Davos.
United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), an Iran watchdog organization, sent a letter to WEF President Borge Brende on Friday asking the forum not to invite any representatives from the Islamic Republic of Iran. According to the group’s statement to Digital, WEF did not reply to the letter; instead, on Sunday, the forum included an interview with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in the summit’s agenda.
WEF did not provide an immediate response to Digital’s request for comment.
Mark Wallace, CEO of UANI and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President , referenced reports from human rights groups about the mass killing of Iranian civilians by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime.
“Earlier this month, the Iranian regime committed what many consider to be the deadliest massacre in its history,” Wallace stated in his letter to Brende. “Araghchi is part of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), which is said to have ordered the use of live ammunition against protesting Iranian civilians. It is estimated that between 12,000 and 20,000 Iranians were killed by the regime over several days in January while exercising their basic right to protest the Ayatollah and his oppressive rule.”
“Giving a platform to Iranian regime officials like Araghchi—who downplay this violent record—is deeply offensive and entirely unsuitable for a Forum whose theme this year is ‘A Spirit of Dialogue.’ Instead of engaging in dialogue, the Islamic Republic used bullets against these brave Iranians,” Wallace went on.
According to BBC reports, Iran’s acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that thousands of people lost their lives in recent anti-government protests.
made those comments during a public speech on Saturday, blaming the U.S. for the unrest and violence and noting that some protesters died “in an inhuman, savage way.”
The U.S.-based Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency estimates that over 3,000 people were during weeks of unrest, though Iranian officials have yet to publish an official death count and other estimates are even higher.
Videos verified by BBC Persian and BBC Verify depict Iranian security forces shooting at protesters during the unrest.
On Saturday, Trump told Politico that “it’s time to seek new leadership in Iran” after hearing a series of hostile posts from Khamenei’s X account that accused the president of being responsible for the violence.
“As the leader of a nation, his guilt lies in the total destruction of the country and the use of violence on an unprecedented scale,” Trump told Politico. “Leadership is rooted in respect, not fear and death.”
Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.