Reactions to Raisi's Thanks to the 'Iranian Embassy in New York': Still Unaware After 40 Years

Raisi's use of the phrase 'Iranian Embassy in New York' coincided with the announcement of the return of the confiscated Achaemenid tablets from the U.S. to Iran, sparking widespread reactions on social media. The Islamic Republic of Iran announced on Thursday that after long legal efforts to reclaim its ancient artifacts, thousands of clay tablets from the Achaemenid era were returned to Iran on a plane carrying Raisi from the United States. However, the remarks made by Ebrahim Raisi, the President of the Islamic Republic, upon his return to Iran were met with widespread reactions from social media users. On Thursday night, after returning from the U.S., Raisi thanked the 'Iranian Embassy in New York' for its efforts in retrieving these tablets. Many users emphasized that the Islamic Republic has not had an embassy or consulate in the U.S. for over 40 years, and moreover, embassies of countries are located in Washington, D.C., not New York City. Ehsan Karami, an Iranian actor residing in the U.S., commented on Raisi's statement, saying: 'It was a shot that was adorned with jet lag! And thus the embassy of the Islamic Republic in New York (not even Washington!) came into existence!' Azadeh Mokhtari, a journalist, wrote: 'Do we have an embassy in New York?!! Does the U.S. also have an embassy in Tehran?' Hadi Mehrani, a journalist, humorously suggested the possibility of secretly purchasing an embassy in New York and appointing one of the 'Aghazadeh' (children of the elite) as ambassador. Another user sarcastically referred to Raisi's biggest achievement during his trip to the U.S. as 'the unveiling of our embassy in New York.' The returned tablets, found in the ancient ruins of Persepolis, the capital of the Achaemenid Empire that ruled southern Iran from the 6th to the 4th century B.C., demonstrate how ancient society and its economy were managed and organized. These tablets were returned to Iran by the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, which had previously borrowed around 30,000 tablets or tablet fragments found at the Persepolis site for research in the 1930s. A large portion of these tablets was returned to Iran in three batches between 1948 and 2004. The remaining artifacts were blocked after a legal action by American survivors of the Palestinian group Hamas's attack on Israel in 1997. The plaintiffs, blaming Tehran for supporting this armed group, sought to seize these tablets and sell them to pay a $71.5 million judgment that Iran owed them in this lawsuit. This litigation concluded in the winter of 2018, and according to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision, the seizure of the artifacts was prohibited. However, the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic in 2018 complicated the return of the ancient artifacts to Iran. The National Museum of Iran displayed about 300 similar tablets from 1,783 tablets that were returned from the U.S. to Iran in the early part of that same year during the fourth phase of returns.