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Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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| By Associated Press January 24, 2007 |
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Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked New England officials to divest state pension funds from Iran, a step he said could pressure Iran into backing away from its nuclear ambitions.
"Iran is a radical regime and is susceptible to economic pressure. It is a regime that talks about imagining the world without America, without Israel," Netanyahu told Massachusetts state Treasurer Tim Cahill and other officials from New Hampshire and Rhode Island. "It is both morally necessary and prudent to take this action while there is time."
Netanyahu's comments Tuesday came after former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a potential 2008 Republican presidential candidate who arranged the meeting for Netanyahu, issued a similar call during a security conference in Israel, urging sanctions "at least as severe" as those imposed on South Africa during its apartheid era.
Cahill said the state currently has no money directly invested in Iran, but that Netanyahu's comments would be "something we're going to take under advisement."
U.S. investments in Iran have been limited for over a decade as a result of sanctions that barred companies from investing in Iran's oil industry. The latest sanctions, passed last year, aimed at preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction to Tehran.
There is precedent for Massachusetts divesting its pension funds from countries for political reasons.
In the 1980s the state pulled pension funds out of South Africa to protest apartheid. It also pulled funds out of Northern Ireland. It currently bars investments in tobacco companies.
There is a bill already pending at the Statehouse that would require the state to divest from companies that do business in Sudan.
Cahill said the Sudan bill, which failed to win approval by lawmakers last year, could be amended to include Iran.
Officials from Rhode Island and New Hampshire said they would consider Netanyahu's proposal. |
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