Israeli Ambassador Yoram Aridor has charged Iran with violating the U.N. Charter by calling for an Islamic holy war against Israel.
In an Oct. 31 letter to U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, Aridor pointed to remarks at the International Conference to Support the Islamic Revolution of the People of Palestine, held Oct. 19 to 22 in Teheran, under the auspices of the Iranian government.
Aridor cited the official Iranian news agency, which quoted Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani as telling conference participants that “Iran is even ready to dispatch troops to fight Israel along with the Palestinians.”
The conference concluded with a 28-point declaration which called for the “elimination of the Zionist existence” and cited “the need for an all-out jihad (holy war) against the Zionist regime.”
Aridor said Rafsanjani’s remarks, and similar statements by spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, violate Article 2(4) of the U.N. Charter, which requires member states to “refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force” against other states.
Describing the conference as “a blatant effort to undermine efforts to promote peace in the Middle East” on the eve of the Madrid peace conference, Aridor pointed out that the Palestine Liberation Organization was represented by Sheik Abd el-Hamid al-Sayeh, speaker of the Palestine National Council.
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