The Iranian minister of foreign affairs, Ali Akbar Salehi, will take part in the UN's controversial Durban III "anti-racism" conference, according to a source close to the UN.
"Such an inclusion makes a mockery of the event's anti-racism credentials," says Anne Bayefsky, who will chair a key parallel "counter-conference" to the UN Durban III gathering Thursday.
Salehi's involvement comes against the backdrop of the Islamic republic's threatened annihilation of Israel, and the anti-Israel record of the Durban process, stretching back to the UN's World Conference against Racism in the South African city of Durban in 2001.
Bayefsky says the presence of Salehi at Durban III should prove to be a "profound embarrassment to the credibility of the entire United Nations human rights system."
Salehi will be among other member-state delegates addressing "roundtable" gatherings collectively titled, "Victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance: recognition, justice and development." This is no accident, as the Durban Declaration claims Palestinians are "victims" of racism.
Bayefsky is Hudson Institute Senior Fellow and Director of the Touro College Institute on Human Rights & the Holocaust. The two organizations are to host the counter conference titled, "The Perils of Global Intolerance: The United Nations and Durban III." The day-long event will take place at the Millennium UN Plaza Hotel in New York, across from UN headquarters.
The counter conference will provide effective "one-stop-shopping" for journalists seeking to locate a concentration of top names capable of providing expert reaction to the simultaneous Durban III conference, this week's bid by the Palestinians to seek UN backing for a unilateral declaration of independence, and the scheduled General Assembly address Thursday of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Among the 18 speakers will be former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former U.S. ambassador to the UN John Bolton, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel.
"If countries are serious about combating racism and a modern form of anti-Semitism, they will pull out of Durban III immediately," says Bayefsky. In a unique rebuff to the United Nations, all three western democratic members of the permanent five powers of the UN Security Council, and another 10 nations are already boycotting the meeting. They are: Australia, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, the United States and the United Kingdom.
