Skip to content or view screen version

Iran demands Security Council action on Israel threat

Reuters & General Joe | 08.06.2008 19:23 | Anti-militarism | World

"Mofaz's threat against Iran was the most explicit from a member of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government, which has preferred to hint at a possible use of force.

Khazaee's letter said the Security Council's history of failing to act against Israel "has emboldened it to continue and even increase its unlawful behaviors and policies."

"Such a dangerous threat against a sovereign state and a member of the United Nations constitutes a manifest violation of international law and contravenes the most fundamental principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and, thus, requires a resolute and clear response on the part of the United Nations, particularly the Security Council."

Iran demands Security Council action on Israel threat

REUTERS
Reuters North American News Service

Jun 07, 2008 12:40 EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran demanded action from the U.N. Security Council about an Israeli threat to attack its nuclear sites if it continues uranium enrichment, according to a letter released Saturday by Iranian U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee.


Israeli Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz was quoted on Friday in an Israeli newspaper saying that an attack on Iran looks "unavoidable" given the apparent failure of sanctions to deny Tehran technology with bomb-making potential.

"Such a dangerous threat against a sovereign state and a member of the United Nations constitutes a manifest violation of international law and contravenes the most fundamental principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and, thus, requires a resolute and clear response on the part of the United Nations, particularly the Security Council," Khazaee's letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, dated June 6, said.

Iran has defied Western pressure to abandon its uranium enrichment projects, which it says are for peaceful electricity generation.

Tehran has also threatened to retaliate against Israel, believed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, and U.S. targets in the Gulf, if there is any attack on Iran.

Mofaz's threat against Iran was the most explicit from a member of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government, which has preferred to hint at a possible use of force.

Khazaee's letter said the Security Council's history of failing to act against Israel "has emboldened it to continue and even increase its unlawful behaviors and policies."

Israel is widely assumed to have a nuclear arsenal but has never confirmed it publicly. Khazaee said that "poses the most immediate and serious threat that the world and the region are facing."

(Writing by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Stacey Joyce)

Source: Reuters North American News Service

-----

Please share widely with all peace loving people who want no more war. General Joe

Reuters & General Joe

Comments

Hide the following comment

True Test

10.06.2008 00:59

Olmert makes it clear strike on Iran 'remains on table'
Jason Koutsoukis Jerusalem
June 9, 2008

PRIME Minister Ehud Olmert last night refused to discount the possibility of a military strike against Iran.

(Well, yeah. If nobody stops them, the 'Neo-Cons' are going to attack Iran.)

Comments on Friday by his Transport Minister, Shaul Mofaz, that Israel would attack Iran if it continued its nuclear program sparked international uproar at the weekend, pushing oil prices to a record $US140 ($A146) a barrel for fear of interruption to the supply of 4 million barrels a day to world markets from Iran.

(The market is saturated with oil, reserves are high, and the price has nothing to do with supply. Iran's program of nuclear power production has nothing to do with the plot against the country. It's the excuse, not the reason, for a war that was planned before the program even got off the ground.)

Just back from talks in Washington with President George Bush, Mr Olmert said a strike against Iran remained an option. His spokesman, Mark Regev, told The Age that Israel believed the world had to take tangible steps to halt the Iranian nuclear program.

(So Israel demands that 'the world', whose inaction and silence is the only reason Israel is able to perpetuate its war to eliminate and annex Palestine, creates a war for no viable reason - since all relative bodies confirm that Iran has done nothing wrong.)

"The sanctions decided upon now are important, but they are not nearly sufficient," he said. "It remains very important for other nations to increase the pressure on the regime in Tehran, and we've been talking about a number of ideas with the international players."

(But the illusion of this crisis has only been created in order to feign a justification for another long-planned, illegal war.)

Mr Regev said these included an embargo on Iran's refined petroleum exports, sanctions on Iranian businessmen travelling abroad, and beefing up financial sanctions against Iranian banks.

"All options, including the military option, must remain on the table," he said. "We are among all those who want to see a peaceful solution to the Iranian problem. But we should be serious about diplomacy only if serious diplomacy will itself have a chance to succeed."

(And it is designed to fail, so this is a sort of double-edged statement.)

Earlier, other Israeli officials had added to the international criticism of Mr Mofaz, condemning his remarks as being more about getting voters' attention before early elections expected within months. Mr Mofaz is one of handful of politicians jockeying for the leadership if a corruption scandal forces Mr Olmert to resign. Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai accused Mr Mofaz of "cynically exploiting" Israel's strategic interests, and turning them into a political tool to improve his standing in the ruling Kadima party.

"This is an inadmissible and very harmful statement," he said. "Mofaz should stay silent and leave those responsible for defence to deal with it."

Israeli media yesterday reported one high-ranking security official as saying Mr Mofaz was only "speaking for himself".

A deputy leader of Kadima, Mr Mofaz is responsible for the dialogue between Israel and the US. His comments were seen as a hint that a plan to attack Iran had been agreed between the Israel and the US.

"If Iran continues with its program for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it," Mr Mofaz told Israel's Yediot Aharonot newspaper.

(There is no such program. This should be enough to end the discussion in its tracks, but we live in an age of Madness.)

 http://www.theage.com.au/world/olmert-makes-it-clear-strike-on-iran-remains-on-table-20080608-2nk3.html

One way to avoid it would be to arrest these War Criminals before they have a chance to start another illegal war.


Israel attack on Iran 'unavoidable'-Olmert deputy
Fri Jun 6, 2008

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM, June 6 (Reuters) - An Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites looks "unavoidable" given the apparent failure of sanctions to deny Tehran technology with bomb-making potential, one of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's deputies said on Friday.

(Meaning that, even though there is no legal justification for this Act of Aggression, these Extremists will pursue war anyway, just as their opposition has maintained all along. This war, which is about Regime Change and resource theft, was planned along with the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq, and has nothing to do with this program or the current president.)

"If Iran continues with its programme for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective," Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz told the mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

(There is no such program.)

"Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable," said the former army chief who has also been defence minister.

(This is not what the war is about. It was the excuse, not the reason, only that the LIES disseminated by these Extremists fell apart, since the evidence refutes them, and they've lost all credibility.)

It was the most explicit threat yet against Iran from a member of Olmert's government, which, like the Bush administration, has preferred to hint at force as a last resort should U.N. Security Council sanctions be deemed a dead end.

(Iran, using the 'logic' of 'pre-emptive war', Iran would be well within its rights in attacking the US or Israel. Only that Iran doesn't want war, Israel does, and they expect Americans to die fighting it for them.)

Iran, which denies seeking nuclear weapons, has defied Western pressure to abandon its uranium enrichment projects.

(Because the NNPT gives them the right to use this technology to generate electricity.)

The leadership in Tehran has also threatened to retaliate against Israel -- believed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal -- and U.S. targets in the Gulf for any attack on Iranian turf.

Mofaz also said in the interview that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, "would disappear before Israel does."

(Only that he never actually said this. The media which was complicit in LYING the public into an illegal war in Iraq is still at it ...)

Mofaz's remarks came as he and several other senior members of Olmert's Kadima Party prepare for a possible run for top office should a corruption scandal force the Israeli prime minister to step down.

Iranian-born Mofaz has been a main party rival of the Israeli prime minister, particularly following the 2006 elections when Olmert was forced to hand the defence portfolio to Labour, his main coalition partner, at Mofaz's expense.

Mofaz, who is also designated as a deputy prime minister, has remained privy to Israel's defence planning. He is a member of Olmert's security cabinet and leads regular strategic coordination talks with the U.S. State Department.

Israel sent warplanes to destroy Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981.

A similar Israeli sortie over Syria last September razed what the U.S. administration said was a nascent nuclear reactor built with North Korean help. Syria denied having any such facility.

(And the evidence supports this.)

Independent analysts have questioned, however, whether Israel's armed forces can take on Iran alone, as its nuclear sites are numerous, distant and well-fortified. (Editing by Ori Lewis and Charles Dick)

(That's alright, since the US has already agreed to fight this war for Israel, even if Israel starts the war.)

 http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL06251958

Iran Will Cooperate with UN Probe into US/Israeli Allegations
 http://www.winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?13896S

Israel's Syrian Air Strike Was Aimed at Iran
 http://www.winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?8196S

The ME has had a Secretive Nuclear Power in its Midst for Years
 http://www.winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?8195S

Spooks Refuse to Toe Cheney's Line on Iran
 http://www.winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?8173S

IAEA Again Verifies Iranian Compliance
 http://www.winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?8130S

Israel Considering Strike on Iran Despite US Intelligence Report
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2224052,00.html

US intelligence report heightens danger of Israeli strike on Iran
 http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/dec2007/isra-d06.shtml

'Laptop of Death': Revising the NIE on Iran
The entire claim that Iran was building nuclear weapons rests on a laptop provided by a single, dubious source.

 http://www.antiwar.com/ips/akhavi.php?articleid=12028 www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=12025

Israeli Extremists Prep for Nuclear Strike on Iran  http://www.israel.indymedia.org/newswire/display/7903/index.php

Hersh: Israel Pressed me to Write Syrian Site was Nuclear  http://www.rawstory.com/news/2008/Sy_Hersh_Israeli_raid_on_Syria_0208.html

Sy Hersh confirms: Syrian Facility Bombed by Israel Not Nuclear
 http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?10935S

A Strike in the Dark - What did Israel bomb in Syria?
by Seymour M. Hersh  http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/02/11/080211fa_fact_hersh/?printable=tr

War Clouds Over Mideast
 http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=108719&d=8&m=4&y=2008

Israel & The 'Clash of Civilizations'
 http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?11022S

The largest threat to the region doesn't come from Iran: it comes from Israel's success in having had the US "neutralize" countries which it believes to be an existential threat to it's existence. However, there's just one little problem with this approach concerning Iran. Russia's diplomats have stated unequivocally that any attack against Iran will be perceived as an attack on Russia.

UN Nuclear Watchdog in Milestone Iran Deal
 http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?14262S

Iran Dumps US Dollar in Oil Trading, US Preps War
 http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?14276S

Israel's Extremists STILL Beating Iran War Drums
 http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?14360S

Iran Mosque Blast Plotters Admit Israeli, US Links
 http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?14997S

Israel, US Joint Plotting Against Iran, Attack ElBaredei  http://www.israel.indymedia.org/newswire/display/7888/index.php llll

ElBaradei: Iran Not After Bomb
www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/399278.html

Israel Calls for US Blockade of Iran
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/399342.html

US Report on 'Iranian Weapons' Postponed Due to Lack of Evidence
 http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?17560C

Pakistan May Turn Over U.S. Terrorists To Iran
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/399471.html

Iranian Mosque Blast Plotters Admit Israeli, US Links
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/399467.html

Bombing Iran: Extremists' Mad Clamor Persists
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/399468.html

Carter: Israel Has At Least 150 Nukes
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/399591.html

IAEA Again Confirms: No Weaponization in Iran
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/399625.html

McLellan's Warning on Iran
 http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?15853S

'Hate Iran Week' at AIPAC
 http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?15852S

About Time