UPDATED: Iran's Rouhani must be condemned by UN for today's "ugly incitement"

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 regime’s incitement to religious hatred in describing Israel today as “a sore” that “has been sitting on the body of the Islamic world for many years.” (Source: updated NYT translation.)

Hassan Rouhani’s comments came amid a massive festival of hate organized by the Tehran regime today.

Outgoing president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned, “with God as my witness,” that a regional storm was brewing that would “uproot” Israel. Ahmadinejad said Israel “has no place in this region,” provoking chants of “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” from the crowd.

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 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 regime 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. Taken together, the statements of both leaders today amount to an illegal threat under international law against Israel’s right to exist.”

“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.”