Israel: Defense Minister Barak Escapes British Arrest for War Crimes

Israel: US Urges Investigation of War Crimes Allegations

Receive our latest updates by email or RSS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED
Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis

A bit of a tricky consideration for Anglo-Israeli talks: British lawyers for 16 Palestinians are seeking an international arrest warrant for Israel's defence minister.

Still, Ehud Barak, followed by reporters and demonstrators, met British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Foreign Minister David Miliband at the Labour Party conference in Brighton.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJFuRb-qdX4[/youtube]

Amidst the Goldstone Report's conclusion that Israel had been responsible for war crimes during its offensive in Gaza, solicitors asked a district judge at the City of Westminster Magistrates Court to issue a warrant for Barak's arrest under the 1988 Criminal Justice Act, alleging that Barak had committed offences against the 1957 Geneva Conventions.

The Israeli Ministry of Defense responded that Barak enjoyed diplomatic immunity "due to his being a minister in the government" (although media reports said Barak had been warned about the impending legal action and urged to leave the UK for France by Israeli officials).

The Guardian reports that, despite the official Israeli statement, lawyers from two London law firms believe the warrant that the International Criminal Court issued in May 2008 for the arrest of Omar al-Bashir, the President of Sudan accused of committing war crimes in Darfur, offers a precedent. However, the British court rejected the appeal, accepting the arguments of the British Foreign Office that Barak was a state guest and not subject to such lawsuits.

Freed from the prospect of a jail term, Barak praised Israel's offensive strategy:

We do not intend to let terror win.. We will not apologize in any way for our just struggle against terrorism. We will do everything possible so that the representatives of Israel, security officials and soldiers of the IDF will continue to freely travel the world. The theater of the absurd whereby those who defend their citizens need to be on the defensive has to end. Otherwise, the world is likely not only to give a prize to terrorism, but to encourage it.

Iran's "Secret" Nuclear Plant: Israel Jumps In

NEW Iran’s Nukes: Did Gates Just Complicate the Obama Position?
The Latest from Iran (27 September): Is There a Compromise Brewing?

Receive our latest updates by email or RSS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED
Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis

Perhaps the least surprising dimension of the story of the second Iranian enrichment plant has been the speed and intensity of Israeli official reactions came flat out.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio on Saturday:

This removes the dispute whether Iran is developing military nuclear power or not and therefore the world powers need to draw conclusions... Without a doubt it is a reactor for military purposes not peaceful purposes.

Referring to representatives of Arab countries at the UN meetings last week, Lieberman claimed:

Nobody is worried about the Palestinian problem, everybody in the Muslim and Arab world, and first and foremost in the Gulf states, are worried about the Iranian problem.

Haaretz reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Senators and Congress members in Saturday telephone conversations that it was the time to act to halt the Iranian nuclear program. "If not now, then when," Netanyahu reportedly said. "Action must be taken in all areas to increase pressure on Iran and impose crippling sanctions on it."

As for President Obama's engagement strategy, the Jerusalem Post quoted a senior Israeli official on "the last chance" given to Tehran by the United States, France, Britain and Germany,  "The free world has reached the last opportunity for engagement with Iran. We believe many Western countries now see that the Iranian mask is slipping." He added, however, "But we don't yet know if Russia and China understand this."

Iran's Nuclear Programme: The US State Department Line

The Latest from Iran (26 September): The False Flag of the Nuke Issue

Receive our latest updates by email or RSS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED
Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis

Following the Obama-Sarkozy-Brown statements on Iran's second enrichment facility, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and State Department spokesman Ian Kelly spoke about the issue.

Clinton stated that the US was now awaiting Iran's response at the 1 October meeting with the "5+1" powers. Asked whether Washington was willing to engage in further conversations if the Iranians did not offer a "serious" response, she said: "We’re going to take it one day at a time."

Ian Kelly added that the US had been watching and analysing the facility for several years. He claimed however, that the existnece of the plant did not invalidate the conclusions in the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, which said that Iran had suspended research and development of its nuclear weapons programme in 2003.