TEHRAN -- In a dramatic plea made during a live broadcast of regional affairs debate program Middle East Today on international broadcaster PressTV, an American lawyer called on Tehran to support his bid to sue Israel for genocide against the Palestinians.

"I would like to propose here today on this program that President Mahmood Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei give me the authority to sue Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague for inflicting genocide against the Palestinian people," said panelist Francis A. Boyle, Professor of International Law.

Speaking Thursday evening on the phone from Champaign, Illinois, Boyle said, "I think that would be one way that the deadlock at the United Nations Security Council could be very easily broken and could shake up the American people and the European Union to the developing genocide being inflicted on the Palestinians in Gaza today."

Boyle was referring to the repeated use of the US veto at the UNSC to block any resolutions critical of its key ally in the Middle East...