Thursday, August 30, 2012

UN chief Ban Ki-moon warns about the current state of bellicose rhetoric coming from Israel and Iran, saying "a war of words can quickly spiral into a war of violence."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon listen to a speech by Egypt's President Mohamed Mursi during the 16th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran August 30, 2012. REUTERS/Majid Asgaripour/Mehr News Agency

"...Ban, whose presence at the summit had been criticised by the United States and Israel, also took Iran's leaders to task for recent comments calling Israel a "cancerous tumour" that should be cut out of the Middle East. He urged both Iran and Israel to cool the bellicose language.

"I strongly reject any threat by any (UN) member state to destroy another, or outrageous comments to deny historical facts such as the Holocaust," Ban said in his summit speech.

"Claiming another UN member state does not have the right to exist or describe it in racist terms is not only utterly wrong but undermines the very principles we have all pledged to uphold," he said.

"I urge all the parties to stop provocative and inflammatory threats. A war of words can quickly spiral into war of violence. Bluster can so easily become bloodshed. Now is the time for all the leaders to use their voices to lower, not raise, tensions..."

 World leaders squirm as Iran summit turns tense
  [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

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