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Israel not to Send Commandos For Releasing Iranian Jews: Official
Israel will not send commandos to Iran for freeing 10 Jewish people who was sentenced Saturday to prison terms for spying for Israel, a senior Israeli cabinet official said on Sunday.
The Israeli government will continue to adopt political and diplomatic measures just as it has been doing since these Iranian Jews were arrested last spring, Israeli Cabinet Secretary Yitzhak Herzog told the press.
Herzog, one of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's confidants, also released a prepared government statement, which he stressed was a cabinet decision unanimously approved in Sunday morning's weekly cabinet meeting.
The statement reiterated Israel, along with "the entire enlightened world", condemned Saturday's verdict against "innocent Jews whose only sin is their Jewish origin."
"This was not a just trial, but a farcical procedure," it added. Barak had discussed this with a number of world leaders, including U.S. President Bill Clinton, the statement said.
Israel, as the state of the Jewish people, will spare no effort to secure the freedom of those "innocent Jewish brothers." Barak also called on "the entire free world" to join this effort, the statement said.
An Iranian Revolutionary Court in Shiraz Saturday convicted these Iranian Jews of spying for Israel and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from four to 13 years, ending an 11-week trial of the espionage case.
Several Western countries condemned the verdict as a "grave injustice and gross violation of human rights" and demanded an immediate release of the Iranian Jews as Israel had denied any links between their intelligence services and the accused.
Tehran, however, insisted these Jews were convicted because of their cooperation with a hostile government, membership in an illegal spy ring, and recruitment of new agents.
There are about 25,000 Jews in Iran, the largest Jewish community in the Middle East region outside Israel. Among them, 6, 000 live in Shiraz, a city in the southern Fars province.
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