Annan’s First Step

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The next few days will tell a lot about whether Kofi Annan, in canceling his trip to Iran, really means business. It took Mr. Annan more than a week to realize that visiting Iran after its president called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” wouldn’t be “appropriate.” But we are happy to see him avoid the kind of misstep he made when, on his way to Yad Vashem, he placed a wreath at the grave of Yasser Arafat. It has been an official Iranian war aim since the 1979 Iranian revolution for Israel to be wiped off the map, but the Iranian president’s reiteration of the call made it impossible even for the general secretary of the United Nations to ignore.


For Mr. Annan’s intended rebuke of Iran to be taken seriously – among oppressive states and democracies – the secretary general will need to see the cancellation of his trip as but the first step in meting out greater punishment to Iran. The mullahs are not going to fall over, after all, by being denied the honor of Mr. Annan’s visit. The threats against Israel are not hollow from Iran, which is edging ever closer to acquiring a nuclear bomb. Mr. Annan’s own nuclear inspection team, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has reported that the mullahs have been lying about its nuclear program for 18 years. The IAEA recently reported that Tehran still has not come clean.


Iran is already the world’s worst sponsor of terrorism. From Hezbollah in Lebanon to terrorists attacking British and American troops in Iraq, Iranian money funds Islamic terrorists across the globe. Prime Minister Blair, showing his usual clarity, asked: “Can you imagine a state like that with an attitude like that having a nuclear weapon?” The threat isn’t just to Israel, though that would be enough for us. Once Iran gets its nuclear bomb, Israel might be the first target and then America. The Europeans would be high up the list too (feature what’s happening in France right now). Just as Bin Laden and Al Qaeda aim to establish a global Wahhabi Islam caliphate, the theocrats in Tehran want to establish a Shiite Islam one.


Mr. Annan could change the United Nations’ image of being soft on terrorist sponsoring states by announcing moves to suspend or expel the Iranian regime from the United Nations. If Iran isn’t fit for the secretary general to visit why is it fit to sit in the secretary general’s organization? Other Middle Eastern countries that also seek to destroy the Jewish State – Syria, say, or Saudi Arabia – deserve similar ostracism. They may cloak their aims in the language of the Palestinian Arab question and Jerusalem, but their aims are the same as Iran’s. If Mr. Annan wants to show real leadership he could extend this policy to all states that oppress their people and terrorize others. Let any visits to these countries be put on hold, while the civilized world treats with their democratic opponents languishing in jails or exile.


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