Teheran's strident complaint comes after pensioners minister says kidnapping Ahmadinejad "acceptable."
By JPOST.COM STAFF, APrafi eitan 224.88(photo credit: AP)
Teheran protested to the UN on Tuesday against an apparent threat by Pensioners Affairs Minister and former Mossad agent Rafi Eitan to kidnap President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, declaring it would not hesitate to act in self-defense.
In a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Teheran's UN ambassador quoted Eitan saying that kidnapping Ahmadinejad was "an acceptable option" and comments made by Defense Minister Ehud Barak on September 3 repeating the threat to use force against Iran.
"While the Islamic Republic of Iran has never threatened other nations," Ambassador Muhammad Khazee said, it "would not hesitate to act in self-defense to respond to any attack against the Iranian nation and to take appropriate defensive measures to protect itself, its people and its officials."
Israel's UN Mission said it would have no comment on Khazee's letter.
In an interview published on Tuesday with the German newsweekly Der Spiegel, Eitan was asked whether the Mossad still hunted Nazis.
"That era is over. But that's not to say that such operations are completely a thing of the past," he said. "It could very well be that a leader such as Ahmadinejad suddenly finds himself before the International Criminal Court in The Hague."
Dr. Mordechai Kedar of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University said Iran was correct to petition the UN.
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