PRESS RELEASE
GENEVA, August 2 — A Geneva-based human rights group urged UN chief Ban Ki-moon and the world body’s human rights commissioner Navi Pillay to immediately condemn the Iranian president’s statement describing Israel as “an old wound” that “should be removed.”
UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental organization, also called on top UN official Jan Eliasson and former EU foreign minister Javier Solana to cancel their reported plans to attend Hassan Rouhani’s Sunday inauguration.
“It is urgent for leaders of the United Nations and especially its human rights officials to make it crystal clear to Iran’s new president that threatening a UN member state’s existence — and inciting masses to base hatred against another people — is not only offensive and inflammatory, it’s a gross breach of the UN’s charter and core human rights conventions,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.
“We urge Mr. Ban to remind Rouhani, just as he told his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year, that the UN charter obliges all member states to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.”
“Given Rouhani’s ugly incitement today, it is vital that no UN or EU official dare risk granting legitimacy to such expressions of hatred and aggression by now participating in his inauguration.”
“We also call upon the democracies of Brazil, India and South Africa, which are leading members of the 120-strong Non-Aligned Movement, to condemn Iran and demand that it be removed from its position as chair of the influential UN voting bloc.”
