Cancel Ahmadinejad's Visa
By MICHAEL D. EVANS
Published: September 19, 2007
Should the president of a country who repeatedly calls for the annihilation of another country be given the right to share his genocidal views with the General Assembly of the United Nations?
If Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is allowed to incite the genocide of Israel at the UN podium next week, this will be more than another bizarre appearance by a dictator at New York's theater of the absurd – it will mean the denial of the very purpose of the United Nations.
The UN was founded in 1945 in the spirit of universal horror and revulsion at the Holocaust, by war-torn nations hoping to at last establish a foundation for world peace based on human rights. Since 2005, Ahmadinejad has denied that the Holocaust every happened while simultaneously declaring that Israel “must be wiped from the map of the world.”
The UN should act out of self-respect to deny Ahmadinejad access to its podium. If the world body fails to demonstrate a minimal amount of human dignity, the United States should not allow him in the country. Indeed, many political leaders – including John Bolton, former US Ambassador to the United Nations – called last year on the UN’s International Court of Justice to indict Ahmadinejad for incitement of genocide in calling for Israel’s destruction. The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide includes the crime of incitement to commit genocide.
So far only two presidential candidates, Republicans Mitt Romney and John McCain, have denounced Ahmadinejad's visit next week and demanded that the United States not let him in. Romney wrote in a public letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this week that “the despot is supporting Hizbullah’s terrorist efforts, flouting the international community through his nuclear weapons program, and supporting Shi'ite militia extremists in Iraq.”
At the other end of the moral spectrum, however, State Department officials have issued him a visa and defended Ahmadinejad’s right to address the assembly, arguing that the UN is the forum for member states to engage in dialogue. It is mind-boggling to consider what type of dialogue the State Department considers likely between Ahmadinejad and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
Last June, UN Secretary-General Ban mildly criticized Ahmadinejad's remark that the world would soon see Israel's destruction. At the time, Ban said he was "shocked and dismayed…Under the United Nations Charter, all members have undertaken to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state."
Israel isn't the only country threatened by Ahmadinejad's Iran, of course. Lately he boasted of having 600 missiles aimed at US bases in Iraq, not to mention Israel. That Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers are killing American troops in Iraq is a matter of record – but this is not the most serious threat.
As President George W. Bush told US war veterans in a speech last month, Iran endangers the entire world both by its pursuit of nuclear weapons and by supporting Islamist extremists in other countries.
"Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust," he said. As the world leader of Islamofascism, Ahmadinejad is determined to inflict more than one holocaust upon humankind.
If the US government were to summon the courage to revoke Ahmadinejad's visa, it would not be the first time America kept out a hatemongering supporter of terrorism. In 1988 the Reagan administration denied then PLO chairman Yasser Arafat a visa, citing his "associations with terrorism." True to form, the General Assembly quickly voted to hold a special session in Geneva, which Arafat addressed.
Ahmadinejad has rejected dialogue in favor of annihilation. He has repudiated the mission of the United Nations and it would add insult to injury for him to appear before it.
**********
Dr. Michael D. Evans is that author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, The Final Move Beyond Iraq, www.beyondiraq.com.
Published: September 19, 2007
Should the president of a country who repeatedly calls for the annihilation of another country be given the right to share his genocidal views with the General Assembly of the United Nations?
If Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is allowed to incite the genocide of Israel at the UN podium next week, this will be more than another bizarre appearance by a dictator at New York's theater of the absurd – it will mean the denial of the very purpose of the United Nations.
The UN was founded in 1945 in the spirit of universal horror and revulsion at the Holocaust, by war-torn nations hoping to at last establish a foundation for world peace based on human rights. Since 2005, Ahmadinejad has denied that the Holocaust every happened while simultaneously declaring that Israel “must be wiped from the map of the world.”
The UN should act out of self-respect to deny Ahmadinejad access to its podium. If the world body fails to demonstrate a minimal amount of human dignity, the United States should not allow him in the country. Indeed, many political leaders – including John Bolton, former US Ambassador to the United Nations – called last year on the UN’s International Court of Justice to indict Ahmadinejad for incitement of genocide in calling for Israel’s destruction. The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide includes the crime of incitement to commit genocide.
So far only two presidential candidates, Republicans Mitt Romney and John McCain, have denounced Ahmadinejad's visit next week and demanded that the United States not let him in. Romney wrote in a public letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this week that “the despot is supporting Hizbullah’s terrorist efforts, flouting the international community through his nuclear weapons program, and supporting Shi'ite militia extremists in Iraq.”
At the other end of the moral spectrum, however, State Department officials have issued him a visa and defended Ahmadinejad’s right to address the assembly, arguing that the UN is the forum for member states to engage in dialogue. It is mind-boggling to consider what type of dialogue the State Department considers likely between Ahmadinejad and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
Last June, UN Secretary-General Ban mildly criticized Ahmadinejad's remark that the world would soon see Israel's destruction. At the time, Ban said he was "shocked and dismayed…Under the United Nations Charter, all members have undertaken to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state."
Israel isn't the only country threatened by Ahmadinejad's Iran, of course. Lately he boasted of having 600 missiles aimed at US bases in Iraq, not to mention Israel. That Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers are killing American troops in Iraq is a matter of record – but this is not the most serious threat.
As President George W. Bush told US war veterans in a speech last month, Iran endangers the entire world both by its pursuit of nuclear weapons and by supporting Islamist extremists in other countries.
"Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust," he said. As the world leader of Islamofascism, Ahmadinejad is determined to inflict more than one holocaust upon humankind.
If the US government were to summon the courage to revoke Ahmadinejad's visa, it would not be the first time America kept out a hatemongering supporter of terrorism. In 1988 the Reagan administration denied then PLO chairman Yasser Arafat a visa, citing his "associations with terrorism." True to form, the General Assembly quickly voted to hold a special session in Geneva, which Arafat addressed.
Ahmadinejad has rejected dialogue in favor of annihilation. He has repudiated the mission of the United Nations and it would add insult to injury for him to appear before it.
**********
Dr. Michael D. Evans is that author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, The Final Move Beyond Iraq, www.beyondiraq.com.
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