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By Jay Bushinsky
MGI News
July 23, 2010
JERUSALEM -- Iran's nuclear ambitions, genocidal threats and involvement in worldwide terrorism has been condemned by an international group of scholars, authors and public figures as a threat to mankind.
In a detailed and heavily-documented report issued here by one of its leading members, former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, the group charged that Iran is the "toxic convergence" of four dangers:
-- nuclear threat;
-- genocidal incitement;
-- state-sponsored terrorism;
-- violations of the Iranian people's rights.
The group's report contained a strong critique of Iran's nuclear actives. It charged that the Teheran regime's "standing violation and defiance of international law" included the expansion of uranium enrichment to nuclear weapons-grade capability and development of "an archipelago of enriched uranium centers."
Among the illicit activities in this connection were the use of "more powerful centrifuges to accelerate weaponization and production of more than 4,500 pounds of low-enriched uranium that...is enough for two nuclear weapons." Cotler released the report at a news conference here in conjunction with several
Israeli and Palestinian colleagues.
Israel's former chief justice, Meir Shamgar, charged that "in Iran there is a massive assault on human rights and the rule of law, while dangerous state-sanctioned incitement to genocide continues unabated."
Although the group's petition for coordinated international action did not mention Israel specifically as the primary target of Iran's alleged intention to commit mass murder, disturbing evidence of this was contained in a "Chronology of Statements of Incitement and Hate Language" published jointly with the Hebrew University-Hadassah Prevention Program.
It quoted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as having declared, June 2, 2008, in a scathing reference to Israel: "Thanks to God, your wish will soon be realized and this germ of corruption will be wiped off the face of the world."
Bassam Eid, the founder and chair of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring organization, said, "Iran is a clear and present danger to international peace and security -- to Middle East stability -- and hence also to the security of the Palestinian people."
Despite significant coverage of the news conference by the major news media, there have been no official Iranian reactions to the group's accusations and no clarifications or retractions of any of the dozens of inflammatory statements cited in the name of prominent members of the Teheran regime or of its main supporters.
For example, Ahmadinejad was quoted as having said, Nov. 23, 2009: "Certainly the region will witness the day when the Zionist regime will cease to exist...and just as many events that seemed impossible occurred, the establishment of a Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel will certainly occur."
Turning to violations of human rights and democratic principles in Iran, Cotler noted that it has imprisoned more journalists than any other country in the world.
The same applies; he went on, to juveniles. He stressed that the collective efforts to counter-act these and other practices should be aimed at "the leadership, not the people" of Iran.
The group's conclusions and recommendations have been forward to governments throughout the world.
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