Wiesenthal Center: New Threat by Iranian Official Further Proof that 160 UN Members Were Right to Thwart Iran's Security Council Bid

The Simon Wiesenthal Center said that a suggestion by a senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official that Iran target London to forestall a possible US attack against Iran's nuclearfacilities in the waning days of the Bush Administration, "is further proof that the only place for this regime at the UN Security Council is to receive formal word of furtherinternational sanctions against Tehran," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate Dean of the leading Jewish Human Rights group.

"It was outrageous to begin with that Iran sought a rotating seat on the UN Security Council in the first place since is is under sanction by the UN for its nuclear program, hasthreatened another member of the UN-Israel with annihilation and has a long standing policy of supporting terrorism. It is telling that they could only muster 32 votes in the UNGeneral Assembly," Cooper added.

MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute reported on an October 18, 2008 article by Wahid Karimi, director of the Europe and U.S. department in Iran's Foreign Ministry,wherein he recommends that Iran mark London, as a target, since it is the capital of the U.S.'s closest ally in Europe with the aim of ensuring that the Bush administration does notattack Iran after the U.S. presidential election next month and before Bush officially leaves office on January 20, 2009.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largestinternational Jewish human rights organizations including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.

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