I stand corrected from my earlier remark...
-NW

House Republicans Demand Blinken Explain Raisi Condolences
Iran International
May 23, 2024
https://www.iranintl.com/en/202405235475

[snip]

A group of a dozen Republican lawmakers are demanding a justification of the Biden administration’s decision to express condolences for the death of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi.

“It is highly inappropriate for the United States to express condolences for an individual that was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department and has extensive connections to terrorism,” the GOP members said in a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were killed on May 19, when the helicopter they were traveling in reportedly crashed over East Azerbaijan in Iran.

The exact circumstances of the crash are not yet clear...

...In a post on X, Representative Peter Stauber, rebuked the condolences, saying that offering them “for the death of this monster is a new low for this Administration.

”Separately on Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended his department's decision to express "official condolences" to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, calling it the "normal course of business."

"We expressed official condolences as we’ve done when countries — adversaries, enemies, or not — have lost leaders.”

"It changes nothing about the fact that Mr. Raisi was engaged in reprehensible conduct, including repressing his own people for many years," Blinken said.