WarSclerotic

Holocaust justifies uneasiness: Baird – Winnipeg Free Press.

(Canada is truly Israel’s best friend. – JW )

OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird invoked images of the Holocaust in defending the notion of possible Israeli military action against Iran.

Appearing on CTV’s Question Period Sunday, he suggested the Jewish state has every right to feel threatened and pointed to recent comments by the Islamic republic’s supreme leader, who vowed to remove a “cancer” of Israel from the Middle East.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a speech broadcast across Iran on Friday, also pledged to aid any nation or group that challenges Israel.

“Obviously you can understand why the Jewish people and why Israel would take him seriously,” Baird told the program from Israel.

“Hitler wrote Mein Kampf more than a decade before he became chancellor of Germany. And they take these issues pretty seriously here.”

The book Mein Kampf laid the foundation of Nazi ideology, which led to the Second World War and eventually the Holocaust.

Baird’s comments added to the escalating war of words during the weekend over Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.

Hossein Salami, deputy head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, warned in an interview with the semi-official Fars news agency that any country in the Middle East whose territory is used to launch a military strike will face retaliation.

Salami was quoted as saying Tehran will use “retaliatory aggression” against its neighbours if they aid in such an attack.

The Iranian charge d’affaires, Kambiz Sheikh-Hassani, recently criticized both Baird and Prime Minister Stephen Harper in an email to the Ottawa publication Embassy Magazine, calling their statements on Iran “uninformed, undocumented and inflammatory.”

Harper is on the record several times during the last few weeks describing the regime in Tehran as “a grave threat to peace and security,” and warning it would have no hesitation about using nuclear weapons.

Baird, now on his way to join Harper in China, emphasized Canada supports U.S. President Barack Obama in keeping “all options,” including military action, on the table. “At the same time, I think we have an incredible responsibility to take every single diplomatic effort necessary,” he said.

Repeatedly throughout his visit to the Middle East, Baird has said the new wave of sanctions imposed on Iran by the international community, including a European embargo against Iranian oil, is having a significant impact on the hardline regime.

The concern about the possibility of Tehran acquiring nuclear weapons is not limited to Israel, he said.

“The fear in the Arab world, the entire Gulf, the entire Middle East is palpable on this issue, and it is increasingly a significant security threat for the West,” Baird said.

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