Posted on 10/29/2005, 6:05:28 PM by DoctorZIn
Top News Story
Blair hints at military action after Iran's 'disgraceful' taunt
President's call for Israel to be 'wiped off the map' is condemned by leaders across the world
TONY BLAIR gave warning last night that the West might have to take military action against Iran after worldwide condemnation of its President’s call for Israel to be “wiped off the map”. Ending a one-day European Union summit, the Prime Minister called the explosive declaration by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday a disgrace. Promising discussions with Washington and other allies over how to react, Mr Blair said that he had often been urged not to take action against Iran.
But he added: “If they carry on like this the question people will be asking us is — when are you going to do something about Iran? Can you imagine a State like that with an attitude like that having nuclear weapons?”
It was the first time Mr Blair had even hinted at military action and his words are likely to alarm Labour MPs. Mr Blair, clearly angry at the President’s outburst, said that there were people in Iran’s leadership who believed that the world was sufficiently distracted that it could not afford to focus on the nuclear arms issue.
“They will be making a very big mistake if they do that. Those sentiments are completely unacceptable,” he said. “I have never come across a situation in which the president of a country has said they want to wipe out another country. That is unacceptable.”
Mr Ahmadinejad’s words triggered international condemnation, with Israel demanding Iran’s expulsion from the United Nations. “A country that calls for the destruction of another people cannot be a member,” Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, said.
Russia, which has been helping Iran to develop its nuclear programme, called the words unacceptable. Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, expressed dismay. The Bush Administration demanded that Iran behave as a responsible member of the international community.
Unlike the US, the EU has always emphasised the need to engage Iran diplomatically, but it also abandoned its more cautious stance yesterday. “Calls for violence and for the destruction of any state are manifestly inconsistent with any claim to be a mature and responsible member of the international community,” the leaders said in an agreed statement.
Iran’s chargé d’affaires in London was called to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to be told of Britain’s outrage. Iranian diplomats were subjected to similar protests in other capitals.
Mr Blair said of Iran: “Their attitude towards Israel, terrorism and nuclear weapons is not acceptable. If they continue down this path people are going to believe that they are a real threat to world security and stability. I feel a real sense of revulsion. It shows how much some of these places need to reform themselves. How can we build a more secure world with that type of attitude? It is a disgrace.”
The EU leaders said that the President’s comments would cause concern about Iran’s role in the region and its future intentions. That his comments were made on the same day as the attack on Israeli civilians at Hadera only reinforces the lesson that incitement to violence, and the terrorism it breeds, were “despicable and unacceptable acts”, they said.
Britain, France and Germany have been responsible for handling the EU’s relations with Iran in international forums, and have been notably careful in their diplomatic language, particularly in reference to the prospect of any military action against Iran. By contrast, Washington has conspicuously refused to rule out such action.
But fears in Western governments have grown since the removal last June of Mr Ahmadinejad’s predecessor, Mohammad Khatami, who had been much less hostile to Israel and of whom both Tony Blair and Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, had hopes of a better relationship. His successor, the former mayor of Tehran, was an unknown quantity to the West. On Wednesday he made his hardline views clear when he cited the founder of Iran’s Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini: “As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map.”
Fears about Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been augmented by worries about its activities in Iraq, where it has been suspected of supporting insurgents. There have been reports that high-ranking members of al-Qaeda have been allowed to roam freely in Iran. Tehran has denied any link to or support for the terrorist group.
WHAT THE PRESIDENT SAID
For more details on the controversy read:
- 10 Downing Street released a transcript of the press briefing from the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman on Iran.
- Memri.org published an English translation of the Iranian President's speech at Tehran "World without Zionism" Conference.
- Agence France Presse reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday dismissed widespread international condemnation of his call for Israel to be "wiped off the map", saying his controversial remark was "right and just".
- BBC News reported that while Iran has defended its president's call for Israel to be "wiped off the map," a senior Palestinian official rejected the Iranian position.
- JTA News reported that both houses of Congress unanimously condemned the Iranian president’s call to annihilate Israel.
- Reuters reported that President George W. Bush on Friday called Iran and Syria "outlaw regimes" and once again saying: The United States makes no distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those who support and harbor them because they are equally guilty of murder.
- Xinhua News Agency reported that the UN Security Council discussed a British-drafted presidential statement which would decry the Iranian president's radical comments on Israel.
- Agence France Presse then reported that the UN Security Council on Friday condemned Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comment.
- Eli Lake, The NY Sun reported that the U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, will go ahead with plans to visit Tehran, even after the Iranian president's call for Israel to be "wiped of the map."
- Khaleej Times Online reported that Arab governments maintained silence yesterday over the call by Iran's new president for Israel to be "wiped off the map," but analysts said Teheran's Arab rivals may quietly be pleased.
- Amir Taheri, Asharq Alawsat News warned Syria to ignore recent calls by Iran to resist Western pressure for change.
- World Tribune reported that Iran has sent its first satellite into space and have achieved limited space reconnaissance capability over the entire Middle East, including Israel.
- Islamlic Republic News Agency attempted to blame the US State Department for having "directly ordered the US media to raise hues and cries against Iran's head of state."
- Amir Taheri, The New York Post reminded us that the new president of the Islamic Republic, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, described Israel as "a stain of shame that has sullied the purity of Islam," and promised that it would be "cleansed very soon."
- Middle East Online reported that Iran was Friday holding its annual anti-Israeli hate fest. The turnout was smaller than past events.
- Ramita Navai, The Times UK was among thousands on the streets of the Iranian capital for annual anti-Israel rallies and reported that it would be a mistake to think that all of Iran is on the streets baying for Israel's blood and that the majority of ordinary Iranians don't really care about Israel.
- And finally, A Photo of Rafsanjani, showing his support of Ahmadinejad's stand on Israel, participating in the anti-Israel, Quds Day, march in Iran.
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you da MAN!!!
So do we think that Ahmadinejad is the Hitler or the Mussolini of Islamofascism? Or maybe he'll be more isolated like Nicolae Andruta Ceausescu and hang in a very public manner. I know many Persians and while they don't like Islamic hardliners, they do not want third parties bombing their homeland and their countrymen (friends and families).
This only means that they have to take justice into their own hands and have another revolution. Only when we see Ahmadinejad hanging in Tehran's public square, or even better yet, in the center of Qom (the Persian center of Islam), will we know that the Persian people are taking care of their own business.
If this does not occur, they may not like the results, but we can't have an Islamofascist country with a history of sponsoring terrorism with nuclear weapons, especially supplied by the commies in Russia. Don't forget, these crazy pricks killed over 200 of our Marines in Beirut. Reagan should have taken Tehran out right there and then.
Slowly,... the Terror Masters are being exposed.
Blair has been exceptional when it came to WOT and Thuggish regimes. I am glad to see him use very strong language against Iran. Now, only if the US and UK act on putting Iran in its place, that would be nice.
JDAM for Mr. Mullah, JDAM for Mr. Mullah.....
Lets see if the UK, the USA and Israel attacks with our planes, ships, and missiles, how much will be left of the Iranian Jihadists and their nuclear facilities and 4th rate military?
On both sides of Iran we have the best trained military forces in the world to mop up the remaining Jihadists.
Maybe the new country of Iraq will send a couple of divisions in for payback for all of the suicide bombers from Iran and equipped by Iran.
And here's to Israel knocking out another nuclear reactor in Iran in the face of this open threat.
I agree that not retaliating for the Beirut attack on our Marines was one of President Reagan's biggest blunders. That was an outright act of war, just like the taking of our embassy was. All we did was embolden the Iranians by our inaction to their aggressions. We cannot wait for Iran to get nukes; by then it will be too late. The Iranian leadership has to be taken out, preferably by the Iranian people themselves. If they are not up to the task, then others will have to do it. Time, I'm afraid, is not on our side.
I hope the Iranian people are readyto help end this nightmare.
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