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Israel Calls for Iran Nuclear Sanctions

In the wake of the passage of harsh sanctions on the North Korean regime of Kim Jong-Il following last Monday`s alleged nuclear test, the State of Israel has called for the attention of the U.N. Security Council over the Islamic Republic of Iran`s nuclear ambitions. Jerusalem has long expressed fears about Tehran`s nuclear programs, particularly following comments by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling for the destruction of the Jewish state. According to Israel`s ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, "North Korea was only the preview. Iran will be the feature film, which, if no one takes serious action, will be projected throughout the whole world."

"The international community should learn the lessons of what occurred in North Korea," according to Gillerman. Noting Iran`s commitment to the destruction of Israel, he called for "much harder sanctions to be imposed on a demented Iranian regime that seeks to destroy a UN member state, and totally denies the Holocaust, while preparing to perpetrate a second Holocaust." President Ahmadinejad of Iran has repeatedly and publicly questioned the veracity of the Holocaust, and recently authorized a showing of Holocaust cartoons in Tehran following the printing of cartoons featuring the Muslim prophet Muhammad in Europe.

Speculation has been rife in recent years over whether or not Jerusalem would take matters into its own hands if the international community, and the United States in particular, did not confront the Iranian government. However, this past week the Jewish state reaffirmed that at this point in time Jerusalem would not give up on international diplomatic efforts to curb Tehran`s nuclear research and development.