http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080514/wl_asia_afp/australiairanisraeljustice

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia is considering taking Iran's president to the International Court of Justice for inciting violence against Israel, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Wednesday.

"The Iranian president's repeated extraordinary statements, which are anti-Semitic and expressing a determination to eliminate the modern state of Israel from the map, are appalling by any standards of current international relations," he told Sky News.

"They are an incitement of international violence and what we have said in the past is that we will take legal advice, which the attorney-general is currently doing, on whether there is a profitable way forward here through the appropriate international legal mechanisms and we'll study that advice carefully."

Rudd was commenting on a report in The Australian newspaper that he had promised Australia's Jewish community last year that if he won power in November elections his government would act against Ahmadinejad.

Iran does not recognise the Jewish state, and since becoming president in 2005 Ahmadinejad has repeatedly provoked international outrage by predicting that Israel is doomed to disappear.

He has also caused controversy by playing down the scale of the Holocaust.

Rudd said the comments were "dangerous stuff" in the context of international relations.

"It's not just hyperbole from the bully pulpit of Tehran, it's the roll-on effect across the Islamic world, particularly those who listen to Iran for their guidance," he said.

Attorney-General Robert McClelland confirmed to The Australian that the government was seeking legal advice on taking Ahmadinejad to the International Court of Justice.

"The government considers the comments made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calling for the destruction of Israel and questioning the existence of the Holocaust, to be repugnant and offensive," McClelland said.

"The government is currently taking advice on this matter."

Ahmadinejad is a lunatic and is not good for the stability of that area, but I don't understand why Australia is taking legal action against him. What connection do they have to him?

Because when our Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was running for the election he promised the jewish people that he would try to see some insight into this ongoing problem.

Biiiig mistake i think.

Good on Kevin Rudd for making this stand. It is an example for other countries to follow.

Admit it. You copied and pasted his name into the topic title.

The Hague, just like the UN is a joke...

well technically the Hague is a joke because the UN is a joke.

Democracy doesn't work when the number of unreasonable nations outnumber the reasonable... or when you give 6-7 nations veto powers... because they WILL use them to protect lunatics that play nice for them in return... well for their veto power.

I didn't copy and paste his name... i am Australian ya know :P

imo...the theory is good. someone has to do something about the knife-wielding maniac sitting in the corner. chances are he wont always be sitting in the corner. If such action might promote some decent sanctions...... But thats unlikely and short of military assualt i dont see iran becoming any less dangerous.

What will happen if he is found guilty?

At best...fuel for sanctions. At worst...completely meaningless.
personally i would predict somewhere in the middle. certain countries would surely try to protect iran, on the political battlefield, as they have done in the past.