Major Protest Is Set Here; Quai D'Orsay Warns of War
By BENNY AVNIStaff Reporter of the Sun
A major drama is shaping up over the planned appearance at the United Nations next week of the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with the Jewish community scheduling a protest rally, Mitt Romney calling on the world body to ban the tyrant, and the U.N. Security Council set to consider whether to increase sanctions against the mullahs for their uranium enrichment program.
In Vienna, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, is emerging as the top defender of Iran, arguing at the IAEA's annual assembly yesterday that just as no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, Iran does not present a nuclear menace now. He has been raging against any punitive measures, signing secret pacts with Tehran, and directly confronting not only America, Britain, and Germany but also France, where the Quai D'Orsay is warning of war.
But here in New York, the mood at Turtle Bay is less predictable than in the past, in part because, in sharp contrast to a former U.N. chief, Kofi Annan, Secretary-General Ban has signaled he may side with the West this time. And a Jewish community leadership, animated in part by the success Mr. Ahmadinejad has had in finding allies within the political debate in America, has scheduled a rally on Monday in front of the United Nations.
"It's a message to the world leaders about their responsibility," a vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm Hoenlein, said. "This is somebody who violated the United Nations charter and should not be given that platform." CONTINUED
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