It’s time to expel Iran from the United Nations.

Article 6 of the Charter of the United Nations explicitly allows for such a procedure: “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.”

The first principle enshrined in the charter is the very one that the government of Iran contemptuously flouts, constantly. “The organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its members.” (Our emphasis)

Tehran rejects the right of a Jewish state to exist in its Muslim Middle East. It abhors, therefore, that Israel must be regarded as equal in sovereignty along with all other member states of the UN. Iran is the world’s chief denier of the Holocaust. It is the world’s chief sponsor of terrorism around the globe. And it routinely calls for the annihilation of Israel, a fellow member state of the UN.

Could there be a more compelling, more persuasive evidence of Iran’s “persistent violation of the principles contained in the present charter” than its belligerent, boastful public campaign each day to deny any, let alone sovereign equal, rights to the Jewish state?

The latest Iranian outrage against the Jewish state and the Jewish People occurred last week at a UN-sponsored meeting on global drug enforcement. 

Iranian Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi declared that “the Zionists are in firm control of the drug trade… The Islamic Republic of Iran will pay for anybody who can research and find one single Zionist who is an addict.” Rahimi also advised his audience that the Talmud “teaches them [Zionists] how to destroy non-Jews so as to protect an embryo in the womb of a Jewish mother.” 

It was reported that even other Iranians in the room were appalled by his fevered, frenzied declamation of hatred for  Jews and Israelis. 

Apparently UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was also upset by Rahimi’s remarks. Ban’s spokesperson issued the following statement in the secretary general’s name: “The secretary general has on many occasions called on Iranian officials to refrain from these kinds of statements. He believes it is the responsibility of leaders to promote harmony and understanding and he deeply regrets expressions of hatred and religious intolerance.” (Our emphasis)

Rahimi’s remarks were disgusting, ignorant and inciting of hatred. Ban’s remarks were craven, pusillanimous and entirely inadequate. He couldn’t even find the courage, if not too the will, to actually condemn Rahimi for his ugly bilge about the Jewish faith and  Jews.

It’s time that steps were taken to remove Iran from the organization whose rules, purposes and principles it so cavalierly disdains.