ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “We condemn in the strongest possible terms the call for the obliteration of the existence of the U.S. and Israel and the initiation of a religious war by the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who told an audience at a Teheran conference entitled ‘The World without Zionism,’ that ‘the establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world. Anyone who signs a treaty which recognizes the entity of Israel means he has signed the surrender of the Muslim world … Israel must be wiped off the map.’

“Ahmadinejad also said that Muslim countries that made peace with Israel would ‘burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury’ and that a world without the US and Israel would be possible. The ZOA calls immediately upon the United Nations to remove Iran from the organization because, in threatening the annihilation of member states, Iran is not only severely violating its commitment to the U.N. Charter but threatening world peace. We also call upon all nations to sever ties with Iran.”

The U.N. Charter states:

• “The Purposes of the United Nations are: Article 1.1: To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace.”
  
• “Article 2.1: The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.”
  
• “Article 2.4: 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.”
  
• “Article 6: A Member of the United Nations which has persistently violated the Principles contained in the present Charter may be expelled from the Organization by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council.”
  
• “Article 99: The Secretary-General may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”

Klein summarized by saying, “We strongly support the call of Israeli Prime Minister Sharon that Iran be expelled from the U.N. on the grounds that ‘a state which calls for the destruction of another people cannot be a member of the United Nations.’ It is patently clear that Iran, in calling for the wiping out of member states of the U.N. is acting completely at variance with the purposes and requirements of the U.N. Charter, especially those articles cited here. It is hard to imagine any statement that more fully flouts the spirit and letter of the Charter.

“A country that makes these statements should have no place in the U.N. We also call upon the U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, to discharge his duty under Article 99 to call this matter to the attention Security Council to deal with grave threat to international peace and security.”