In zijn toespraak op de Internationale Conferentie van de VN tegen drugs, ontaarde de toespraak van Iraan Vice President Rahimi in een regelrechte aanval tegen de Joden, de Talmoed en de Zionisten.
Lees hieronder zijn toespraak en het persbericht van het FORUM.
Bron: The New York Times
TEHRAN — Iran’s vice president delivered a baldly anti-Semitic speech on Tuesday at an international antidrug conference here, saying that the Talmud, a central text of Judaism, was responsible for the spread of illegal drugs around the world.
European diplomats in attendance expressed shock. Even Iranian participants in the conference, co-sponsored by Iran and the United Nations, privately wondered at their government’s motive for allowing such a speech, even given its longstanding antagonism toward Israel. More than 25,000 Jews live in Iran, and they are recognized as a religious minority, with a representative in Parliament.
The speech by Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi seemed bound to isolate Iran further just days before a new set of onerous Western economic sanctions, notably a European embargo on Iranian oil, is set to be enforced because of the longstanding dispute over Iran’s nuclear program. Iran says the program is peaceful, and Western nations and Israel suspect it is a cover to develop the ability to make nuclear weapons.
Mr. Rahimi, second in line to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said the Talmud teaches to “destroy everyone who opposes the Jews.”
The “Zionists” are in firm control of the illegal drug trade, Mr. Rahimi said, asking foreign dignitaries to research his claims. “Zionists” is Iran’s ideological term for Jews who support the state of Israel.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran will pay for anybody who can research and find one single Zionist who is an addict,” Mr. Rahmini said. “They do not exist. This is the proof of their involvement in drugs trade.”
What made his remarks even more striking is that Iran’s fight against illegal drugs is one of the few issues on which the Islamic republic can count on Western sympathy. Iran’s battle to stop the flow of drugs coming in from neighboring Afghanistan has often been mentioned as a potential field of cooperation during negotiations over the country’s nuclear program.
Several Iranian ministers gave politically neutral briefings on the impact of the drug trade on the country. Antonio De Leo, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime representative in Iran, praised the Islamic republic as a “key strategic partner in the fight against drugs.”
Mr. Rahimi, who spoke after Mr. De Leo, told stories of gynecologists’ killing black babies on the orders of the Zionists and claimed that the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 was started by Jews, adding that mysteriously, no Jews died in that uprising.
He also said the Talmud teaches Jews to think that they are a superior race. “They think God has created the world so that all other nations can serve them,” he said. Halfway through his speech, Mr. Rahimi said there was a difference between Jews who “honestly follow the prophet Moses” and the Zionists, who are “the main elements of the international drugs trade.”
A European diplomat said afterward: “This was definitely one of the worst speeches I have heard in my life. My gut reaction was: why are we supporting any cooperation with these people?”
But the diplomat, who declined to be identified by name or country, defended his presence at the conference. “If we do not support the United Nations on helping Iran fight drugs, voices like the one of Mr. Rahimi will be the only ones out there,” he said.
EUROPEAN UNION Brussels, 28 June 2012
Statement by the spokesperson of High Representative Catherine Ashton on anti-Semitic statements by Iranian First Vice-President Rahimi
The spokesperson of Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the Commission, issued the following statement today:
“The High Representative is deeply disturbed by racist and anti-Semitic statements made by Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi at the UN “International Day against Drug Abuse”
in Tehran on Tuesday 27 June. She condemns them unreservedly.
Such statements are unacceptable and should not be tolerated. The High Representative reiterates the European Union’s absolute commitment to combating racism and anti-Semitism.”
PERSBERICHT FORUM – vrijdag 29 juni 2012
Het FORUM der Joodse Organisaties is geschokt door de platvloerse antisemitische speech die eerder deze week werd uitgesproken door de Iraanse vice-president Mohammed Reza Rahimi tijdens een internationale drugconferentie in Teheran.
Rahimi beweerde dat de Talmoed de joden zou oproepen eenieder te vernietigen die tegen hen is en beschuldigde eveneens de Zionisten ervan de internationale drugshandel in handen te hebben.
Inmiddels heeft de woordvoerder van Catherine Ashton, buitenland-commissaris en vicepresident van de Europese Commissie, de uitspraken van de Iraanse leider scherp veroordeeld.
Het FORUM merkt op dat de uitspraken zijn ontleend aan de “Protocollen van de Wijzen van Zion”, een antisemitisch schotschrift uit het Rusland van de tsaren. Ook lijken zijn uitspraken geïnspireerd op “Mein Kampf” van Hitler.
“Geen enkele regering met gezond verstand mag zich veroorloven met een dergelijk regime op voet van gelijkheid en respect te verkeren. De gedachte dat Iran over kernbommen zou beschikken, is een horrorscenario dat ons doet terugdenken aan de herbewapening van Nazi-Duitsland in de jaren ’30 met alle gevolgen die nog vers in het geheugen staan gegrift. Een nucleair Iran is een tikkende tijdbom en een immense bedreiging voor de hele wereld”, aldus het FORUM. The New York Times