Liberman angered by PM’s Internet campaign against UN chief’s Tehran trip

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman has come out against the campaign by the Prime Minister’s Office urging UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to forego attending the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit scheduled for late August in Tehran, according to Army Radio.

The PMO recently launched an Internet and media campaign in which surfers were encouraged to send Ban emails and convince him to skip the summit. The campaign followed reports of an early August phone conversation between Netanyahu and the UN chief, in which the prime minister expressed his dismay at Ban’s announcement that he would attend the Tehran summit, claiming it would lend legitimacy to the Iranian regime. Haaretz later reported that Ban was angered by Netanyahu’s leaking their private conversation.

Liberman, as well as several Israeli diplomats serving abroad, reportedly felt that the discussion between Israel and the UN chief should have been much more discreet and that the online campaign is counterproductive. Liberman reportedly expressed his displeasure over the issue to PMO officials.

Government officials reportedly responded that the Internet campaign was launched after all attempts to sway Ban from his decision through diplomatic channels had failed.

Netanyahu is not alone in objecting to the venue of the summit. The United States called the choice of location “strange and inappropriate.”

In her daily press briefing on Thursday, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland noted that while the US is not a member of NAM, “given [Tehran’s] number of grave violations of international law and UN obligations” it is “not the appropriate place,” for world leaders to gather.

Jewish organizations B’nai B’rith and the Conference of Presidents have also urged Ban to reconsider attending the summit.