Olmert's visit to Russia will focus on Iran

The Jerusalem Post reports that Israeli Prime Minister Ehmud Olmert will visit Russia this week to talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his first overseas trip since the Israel-Hizbollah War in Lebanon that ended in August. Olmert stated to Israeli parliament on Monday that Iran's nuclear energy program will "stand at the center" of the agenda.

Along with China, Russia has opposed the imposition of UN sanctions on Iran, the oil-rich Islamic nation that the United States and several of its allies, inlcuding Israel, have accused of using its uranium-enrichment program to secretly develop nuclear weapons.

According to Aljazeera, in October 2005 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad openly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map", describing the formation of Israel (whose statehood Iran currently refuses to recognize as legitimate) as "a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world." Ahmadinejad added that "The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land."

On Monday Olmert stated to Israeli parliament:

"The Iranian threat is a threat to Israel's existence, it is an existential threat to world peace."

The U.S., which considers Israel its "closest ally", has also publicly declared Iran one of the greatest threats to international peace, and has saught the imposition of UN sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend its uranium enrichment program.

However, according to former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamene, the Supreme Leader of Iran's Islamic Revolution--a figure endowed with far more power than the Iranian President under Iran's Constitution--has issued a fatwa (a ruling on a point of Islamic law that is given by the ulama) declaring nuclear weapons incompatible with Shia Islamic law. Iran has repeatedly claimed that its nuclear program is solely aimed at generating electricity, declaring that it has no ambitions for atomic weapons.

None the less, the U.S. and several of its allies have accused Tehran of using peaceful energy development as a guise to hide its nuclear arms ambitions.

-Travis

Link to the story below.

Olmert to focus on Iran's threat in Russia visit (Jerusalem Post)