If Ban goes to Tehran, time for US to cut UN funding

The news that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will be attending a summit of the Nonaligned Movement, along with leaders from 120 other nations, in Tehran this week is not only troubling but an utter contravention of the UN Charter, which makes it perfectly clear that no member nation may threaten the existence of another member nation:

All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations. (UN Charter, Article 2)

To date, of course, the mullahs in Iran, through their illegal president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have put out countless calls for Israel’s destruction. His infamous speech of 2005 comes quickly to my mind:

Our dear Imam (referring to Ayatollah Khomeini) said that the occupying regime must be wiped off the map and this was a very wise statement. We cannot compromise over the issue of Palestine. Is it possible to create a new front in the heart of an old front? This would be a defeat and whoever accepts the legitimacy of this regime has in fact, signed the defeat of the Islamic world. Our dear Imam targeted the heart of the world oppressor in his struggle, meaning the occupying regime. I have no doubt that the new wave that has started in Palestine, and we witness it in the Islamic world too, will eliminate this disgraceful stain from the Islamic world…

Has the UN forgotten these words so quickly? How, then, can Secretary General Ban legitimize a genocidal regime that calls for a second holocaust against the Jewish people by participating in this conference? President Obama has asked that he not attend. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also placed a call to the Secretary General requesting that the UN not legitimize this murderous government, which, beyond constantly and consistently calling for Israel’s destruction, also mowed down its own citizens in the streets of Tehran in the summer of 2009. PM Netanyahu’s office released a portion of his phone call:

Even if it is not your intention, your visit will grant legitimacy to a regime that is the greatest threat to world peace and security. Not only does it threaten countries throughout the Middle East, not only is it the greatest terrorism exporter in the world, but it is impossible to exaggerate the danger it presents to Israel.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, meets with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at United Nations headquarters in 2009. (photo credit: AP/Jason DeCrow)

Clearly, the Obama administration, which has placed an emphasis on channeling its foreign policy through the United Nations and pushing “reset” on its relationship with Ahmadinejad, has stumbled severely. In addition, I have pointed out in a number of my columns some of the UN’s more recent displays of total amorality and immorality. Most importantly, their failure not just to act in the Rwanda genocide, but actually preventing their commanding peacekeeping General Romeo Dallaire from stopping it.

Then, of course, there are the nonstop condemnations of Israel. Of the more than 220 resolutions concerning Israel, the vast majority read like Security Council Resolution 605 that “strongly deplores” Israel’s policies and practices denying the human rights of Palestinians.

And most recently, when Kim Jong-Il – who murdered approximately 3,000,000 people in the most grotesque and gruesome way, by starving them to death, including 1,000,000 children – died, the UN flew its flags at half mast.

What is clear is that the United States must now have teeth in its objections to the UN and must halt the 3 billion dollars it gives in annual contributions to the UN pending the secretary general’s cancellation of his trip to Tehran. There have been a number of occasions when the United States has withheld contributions until the UN reforms, most notably when Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina worked to create the Helms-Biden legislation that forced much needed reforms within the UN. Reforms are desperately needed again.