Dear UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon,
In a matter of days, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit will take place in Tehran, where Iran will assume the rotating, three-year presidency of the group.
Iran attaches great importance to your presence. Indeed, the regime has already announced your participation.
That should come as no surprise.
For the Iranian regime, your attendance, should you go, could not occur at a better time. It would be used as proof positive that Iran, far from diplomatically isolated, is able to conduct business as usual.
No wonder that Iranian leaders place great stock in your participation and are trying hard to make your presence a fait accompli.
No doubt they are already dusting off the red Persian carpet and planning the photo opportunities.
But I have a question: Why would you play into their hands? I know that would not be your intention, but, frankly, it is an unavoidable outcome of such a journey. Your decision to go would be enough for the regime to declare victory.
And it is entirely your decision. It is not mandated by any provision of the UN Charter or determined by the vote of a UN body.
True, as UN Secretary General, you speak to the leaders of all UN member states, including the morally repugnant, but a full-blown trip is certainly not the only way to communicate with a member state's officials.
The strongest argument for going would be that your voice and presence in Tehran could change Iranian government thinking. Regrettably, however, history has amply demonstrated that that is not possible.
You and other distinguished world leaders have tried valiantly to alter the regime's course, and every now and then it seemed as if you'd made a dent in its outlook, only to discover later that nothing had changed.
Iranian officials have ramped up their arrogance and defiance on the very eve of the NAM summit, counting on your presence there. This only goes to show what attendees are in store for.
Mr. Secretary General, I urge you to stay away. Don't fall into the trap being set. Don't confer respectability on the unrespectable. Don't allow Iran's leaders to try to use you and thereby tarnish the name of the UN.
Mr. Secretary General, the Iranian regime opposes all that you stand for. You are against racial and religious incitement, including anti-Semitism, and have spoken out against these evils.
But Iran's government peddles an ever cruder and more despicable anti-Semitism, as documented by the U.S. State Department and exemplified by the comments of Iranian Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi.
Rahimi asserted earlier this year that the Talmud (a Jewish religious text also studied, I've learned, in your own native South Korea for its wisdom and methodological argumentation) teaches to "destroy everyone who opposes the Jews."
You stand for the right of UN member states to live in peace.
But Iran's leaders call for a world without Israel, a UN member in good standing since 1949.
Iranian President Ahmadinejad just gave a fiery speech in which he referred to the "Zionist regime" as a "malignant cancer" and an "insult to humanity." He expressed the hope for a "new Middle East with no memory of the American or Zionist presence."
Are his comments not in violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the Genocide Convention and UN Charter?
You are a member of the Quartet, together with the United States, the European Union, and the Russian Federation, which seeks a peaceful agreement between Israel and her neighbors. But
Tehran has sought to undermine any chance for such an accord by actively supporting those forces opposed to coexistence with Israel.
You recognize the singular evil that was the Holocaust. Indeed, the UN has laudably chosen to commemorate Jan. 27 as a day of remembrance and education.
But the Iranian regime denies the very fact of the Holocaust, claiming it to be a "Zionist" fabrication.
You oppose acts of terrorism.
But Iran today is a state sponsor of terrorism. Both directly and through its proxies, it has fomented attempts at violence -- some successful, others foiled -- from Africa to Asia, from Latin America to Europe, from the United States to the Middle East. Many innocent people have been killed.
You are appalled by the carnage in Syria.
But Tehran has been an active party to that barbarism, openly supporting the Assad regime, illegally exporting weapons to Syria, and putting special troops on the ground alongside forces loyal to the Syrian leader.
You stand for the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
But the Iranian regime tramples on them daily. Executions, torture, prisons, and intimidation all attest to this government's view of human rights.
And, yes, you oppose any further spread of nuclear weapons, wishing to see decisions of UN agencies, from the Security Council to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), heeded.
But Iran continues its march toward nuclear-weapons capability, flouts the four binding resolutions of the UN Security Council, pokes its finger in the IAEA's eye, and makes every effort to circumvent UN sanctions imposed on it.
Mr. Secretary General, let the Iranian-sponsored summit take place without you.
If I may, there are more than enough pressing global matters requiring your attention.
Why waste time and squander prestige in an Iranian-produced exercise in self-promotion?
What a powerfully eloquent message your absence would send!
Respectfully,
David Harris
AJC Executive Director
Iran is an ecclesiastical tyranny of the worst kind. The UN Secretary General has no regard for truth or peace. Why would one expect anything from a representative of a temporal tyranny?
“Combine all the woes that temporal and ecclesiastical tyrannies have ever inflicted on men or nations and you will not have reached the full measure of suffering which (Israel) this martyr people was called upon to endure century upon century. It was as if all the powers of earth conspired - and they did so conspire - to exterminate the Jewish people…History dare not pass over in silence … It is her duty to give a true and vivid account of them… and to testify that Israel, like his ancestor in the days of old, has striven with gods and with men, and has prevailed.” (H. Graetz, 1863)
NAM movement survived having Suharto and Mugabe as chairmen, it will survive being hosted in one of the most oppressive theocracies in the world--Iran.
State Department spokeswoman Nuland says Iran undeserving of high-level delegations from Egypt, UN for Non-Aligned Movement meeting.
The United States is against high-level diplomatic visits to Iran by Egyptian and UN officials, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday. Nuland was responding to a press inquiry that specifically mentioned a yet unconfirmed visit by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and a confirmed visit by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy to attend the Non-Aligned Movement meetings towards the end of August.
"Iran is going to try to manipulate this NAM summit and the attendees to advance its own agenda, and to obscure the fact that it is failing to live up to multiple obligations that it has to the UN Security Council, the IAEA, and other international bodies," Nuland said. "So we, frankly, don’t think that Iran is deserving of these high-level presences that are going there."
Full story: http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?id=281993
You must think the world is Levittown where people can be kept out because they are hated by Jews.
So it is true. All the best comedians ARE Jewish.
Reverse every point Mr Harris makes & you'll be much closer to the actual truth of the matter.
But there is at least one person who would be extremely proud of Mt Harris' latest attempt... George Orwell.
IDF does the same...and much worse than Hamas and Hezbollajh combines...2500+ civilians killed in past decade itself out of which 300+ were children...
Please do something about Israel's oppression of millions of innocent Palestinians, and constant war-mongering.
"For instance: What about the Palestinian children of Area C? (Area C, for those witless innocents who have never heard of it, is not that part of the West Bank controlled by the Palestinian Authority, nor is it Gaza, for which Israel now claims no administrative responsibility other than blockading it. Instead it is that part of Palestine entirely occupied and controlled by Israel since 1967. ) According to a 2009 report by Save The Children U.K. called "Life on the Edge," the rate of malnutrition of the children in Area C is higher even than that in Gaza, and many kids are not only developmentally stunted, but are dying from related illnesses."
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/suffering-of-palestinian-children-is-something-both-sides-can-agree-on-1.314309
"Sagi questioned, for the first time publicly, whether Israel can rely on the judgment and mental stability of its current leaders to guide it in time of war. Listing a number of past strategic errors made by Barak and hinting at Netanyahu's ascribed tendency to traverse rapidly between euphoria and panic, Sagi expressed grave doubts whether Israel's current leaders can take the pressures and stress entailed in managing a major military confrontation."
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/08/20/the_israeli_debate_on_attacking_iran_is_over
I urge you to go and attend the selection of the next three years of the Iranian's presidency of the NAM group. By going you do not legitimize the regime or agree with its sometimes ridiculous statements. Do not fall into the trap that this promoter of Israeli policies likes you to adhere to. It is just an other way for Israel to force people to take a stand against Iran. Anything they can bring to the fore detrimental to Iran is a victory for them. Please do not be swayed by Israeli policies. There is too much bending by the international community to the demands of Israel already.
"UN Resolutions Targeting Israel and the Palestinians
Israel is the target of at least 65 UN Resolutions and the Palestinians are the target of none.
Aside from the core issues—refugees, Jerusalem, borders—the major themes reflected in the U.N. resolutions against Israel over the years are its unlawful attacks on its neighbors; its violations of the human rights of the Palestinians, including deportations, demolitions of homes and other collective punishments; its confiscation of Palestinian land; its establishment of illegal settlements; and its refusal to abide by the U.N. Charter and the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War."
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stats/un.html
Israel could support Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) of which I have been a financial and moral supporter since my early youth; or
Israel could support Henrik Voerster and the White Racist Apartheid Regime.
Israel chose to support the Apartheid Regime.
Israel provided the Racists with guns and bullets to slaughter Black Africans.
Israel taught the Racists how to torture Black Africans.
Israel supported the Racists economically by selling diamonds to the world and acting as a front to enable the White Racist Apartheid Regime to avoid sanctions.
Now many Black Africans HATE Israel for reasons outlined above and would not weep if Iran were to carry out its threat to "wipe Israel off the map of the world."
Of course Israel treats Muslims in Israeli controlled lands worst than the Germans treated Jews in German controlled lands, for that reason the overwhelming vast majority of all Muslims---worldwide--HATE Israel.
Black Africans and Muslims make up many of the Non Alligned Movement and believe Ban shoud show up to the meeting to demonstrate on whose side the world will be if Israel attacks Iran.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/the-great-islamophobic-cr_b_799277.html
now, let me know if you got the point of mr. harris outrage...simply he is paid to spread this information, it's his job...
Excellent post!
Thanks for the extremely informative link.
Don't warmongering racist apartheid nations have their own club?
Absurd and nothing more then the extension of the Arab League
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Uu_KV5kwjY&feature=player_embedded#!
It lost all credibility as soon as it accepted Israel as a member (& then allowed it to remain a member while refusing to meet the obligations it was accepted under - but you already knew that).