WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has co-sponsored a U.S. Senate Resolution, S. Res. 574, calling on the United Nations to take action against Iranian leaders for inciting genocide against Israel and the Israeli people.  

The U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide prohibits acts of genocide and conspiracy to commit genocide, as well as direct and public incitement to commit genocide.  The Convention’s goal is to prevent genocide before it takes place.

“President Ahmadinejad’s threats to ‘wipe Israel off the map’ and Supreme Leader Khamenei’s call ‘to kill all the Jews and annihilate Israel,’ are not only hateful, they violate one of the most serious crimes under international law,” said Senator Cardin, who is also Senate Chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission.  “Our resolution calls on the U.N. to fully enforce the Genocide Convention and hold Iran’s leadership to account for their despicable threats against Jews and the state of Israel.”

The resolution also calls for an International Criminal Court investigation of Iran’s leaders and full implementation of sanctions to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.  It also reaffirms United States support for Israel.

 Other co-sponsors of the Resolution include Senators Kirstein Gillibrand (D-NY), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX), Mark Kirk (R-IL) John Cornyn (R-TX), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Mark Begich (D-AK), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), John Hoeven (R-ND), Mike Johanns (R-NE), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).