Iran Campaigns Against U.N. Nuclear Sanctions

Jerusalem – For the first time since the crisis surrounding the Iranian nuclear program began, Tehran has launched a concerted campaign in the U.N. Security Council against a third round of sanctions that are supposed to be brought up for debate by the Security Council in the next number of days.

The Iranian delegation to the U.N. is expected to distribute over the weekend a 10-page booklet to representatives of the countries on the Security Council. The booklet concisely offers all of the Iranian arguments against continued sanctions and in support of the nuclear program. Iran’s goal is to have the upcoming decision not pass with a unanimous 15-0 result, as the two previous decisions to impose sanctions on Iran were in December and March 2007.

The Iranian effort is focused mainly on South Africa, Indonesia, Vietnam and Libya. The assessment is that those four countries will ultimately abstain in the upcoming vote.

Furthermore, Iran has invested a tremendous effort in its relations with China, a permanent member of the Security Council. If China were to abstain as well, the majority against Iran within the Security Council would decrease to 10.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice intends in the course of her upcoming visit to Beijing to invest most of her time in persuading the Chinese to neither abstain nor veto a decision. Currently, the possibility that China would veto any such resolution appears to be very small, but the Americans would like China to support the resolution.

An Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman issued a statement yesterday that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report confirms without a doubt that Iran is indeed continuing its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

In the words of the Israeli government, “the report also makes it clear that Iran is continuing to enrich uranium and other activities in violation of U.N. Security Council decisions. … This determination, along with others in the report, strengthen Israel’s view regarding the need for further comprehensive and thorough investigation of Iran’s overall nuclear activities. Since Iran continues to obstruct IAEA investigations and persists in flouting U.N. Security Council decisions, Israel believes that the international community must increase pressure on Iran in order to ensure that it will be denied the possibility of attaining nuclear.”

Iran: Arab Country Assisted In Mughniyeh’s Assassination

For the first time since Imad Mughniyeh, a senior Hezbollah official, was killed, Iran has accused an Arab country of having collaborated with Israel in the assassination. The Iranians did not specify to which Arab country they were referring.

Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, the military adviser to the supreme Iranian leader, Ali Khamenei, said over the weekend that “Zionism” had been behind the explosion that caused Mr. Mughniyeh’s death in Damascus. However, he said, the Zionists hadn’t acted alone. “A terrorist-American security organization and an intelligence organization of an Arab country were involved in the act,” said the senior Iranian official in an interview to the official Iranian news agency.

Mr. Mughniyeh was wanted by 42 countries, including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania and Jordan. Just two days after the assassination, Syrian officials involved in the investigation leaked similar allegations about the involvement of an “intelligence agency of a neighboring country” in the assassination.

At Mr. Khamenei’s instructions, a mourning hall was established in Tehran, which was visited by thousands of people who wished to voice their solidarity with Hezbollah in its hour of mourning. Last Saturday, a mock funeral was held for Mr. Mughniyeh in Tehran. A few hundred people carried a coffin that was draped in a Hezbollah flag.

Olmert Leaves For Japan Under Heavy Security

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert left yesterday for an official visit to Japan with a security detail of an unprecedented scope.

This is to be Mr. Olmert’s first trip overseas in the aftermath of Imad Mughniyeh’s assassination, and security officials are tensely alert.

Japanese sources who were involved in preparing the visit said that the Tokyo police would be given 10,000 additional troops to help provide security.

The Iranian nuclear program and reports about the production of long-range missile from North Korea to Syria and Iran will be at the center of the talks that Mr. Olmert is to hold with his Japanese counterpart and the Japanese foreign minister and defense minister.

Japan will support any proposal in the U.N. Security Council to intensify economic sanctions against Iran, given the latter’s refusal to cooperate with the international community with respect to its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. Mr. Olmert is expected to hear statements in that vein from Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda. Japanese cabinet ministers who were involved in preparing Mr. Olmert’s visit said that their government was taking steps in its dealings with industrial companies to limit the scope of cooperation with Iran. “We’re doing this,” said the source, “even though Iran is our second largest trade partner after the United States.” In 2006, Japan exported $9 billion worth of goods to Iran.

Mr. Olmert is to tell the Japanese that Israel intends to intensify its military activity in the Gaza Strip, arguing that no country in the world would tolerate rocket fire on its civilian population. Mr. Olmert will underscore that Israel is aware of the civilian population’s needs and will take steps to prevent a humanitarian crisis from breaking out in the Gaza Strip.

Mr. Olmert will be traveling in the company of 24 leading Israeli industrialists, headed by Shraga Brosh, chairman of the Manufacturers Association of Israel. Three representatives from the Israeli Arab sector will also be part of that delegation: Imad Younes, president and owner of Alfa Omega; Imad Talhami, president of ETN, which is a company from the field of the environment; and Ahmed Afifi, the CEO of Nazarene Tours.

David Bedein can be reached at Media@actcom.co.il. His Web site is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com

©The Bulletin 2008