Israeli Pensioner Affairs Minister Says Israel Should Kidnap Ahmadinejad

The Israeli pensioner affairs minister, Rafi Eitan, who was a former top operative for Mossad told Der Spiegel that if Israeli officers are kidnapped then Israeli should do likewise. He then went on to say that Israel should kidnap Iranian President Ahmadinejad and bring him to trial in The Hague.

Not a bad idea but I don't know how much influence a minister of pensioner affairs has over Israel's security apparatus. Haaretz

"Kidnapping enemy leaders is a legitimate method used by states to combat threats to their existence," Eitan said. "A man like Ahmadinejad who threats the existence of the state of Israel and is also preparing for it is worthy of being brought before the international court in The Hague even if it is by means of abduction. Abductions still occur. It is a fact that the Americans do it all the time when they kidnap Al-Qaida operatives in Iraq quietly and without any fanfare and bring them to trial."

"[Abductions] are done throughout the free world," Eitan said. "Abductions allow for room to maneuver. Just like we kidnapped the senior Hezbollah figure Mustafa Dirani - which enabled us to trade him in exchange for our people."

The minister also reacted to a recent spate of reports indicating that senior army officers have been warned they are potential targets for abduction by Hezbollah.

"The moment they carry out their threats against us and kidnap our army officers, the response needs to be counter-kidnapping of their army officers of the same rank," Eitan told Haaretz on Tuesday.

Needless to say, the Iranians didn't take kindly to Eitan's rhetoric and complained to the UN.

In a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, the ambassador Mohammad Khazee said Mr Eitan's remarks reflected Israel's "aggressive and terrorist nature", Iran's Irna news agency reported.

"These dangerous threats of resorting to criminal acts against the officials of a sovereign country, or threatening to use force against a member of the United Nations not only constitute manifest violations of international law and contravene the most fundamental principles of the Charter of the United Nations, but are against the basic values of the civilised world," he said.

So I guess all those veiled threats made against Israel by Ahmadinejad fall outside of the UN's charter.