Israel should be ?wiped off the map?: Iran
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran?s hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad openly called Wednesday for Israel to be ?wiped off the map? and lashed out at Muslim nations which recognise the Jewish state, setting off a storm of protests.
?The establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world,? the president told a conference in Tehran entitled ?The World without Zionism?.
?As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map,? said Ahmadinejad, referring to a slogan which Iran?s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini used before his death in 1989.
His remarks triggered a swift response from Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom who said Iran was a ?clear and present danger?.
?We believe that Iran is trying to buy time ... so it can develop a nuclear bomb,?
said Shalom.
The White House said the call ?underscores the concerns we have about
Iran?s nuclear operations?, while the German foreign ministry said the comments were ?completely unacceptable?.
France will summon Iran?s ambassador to Paris to ask him about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?s call for Israel to be ?wiped off the map?, Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said.
?I learned of the comments... according to which the president of Iran says he wants Israel to disappear and said the conflict in the Middle East would perpetuate an age-old fight between Jews and Muslims,? Douste-Blazy said in a statement.
?I condemn them very forcefully,? he said.
?Therefore I have asked that the ambassador of Iran to Paris be summoned to (the foreign ministry) for an explanation,? he said.
?The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of a war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land,? h
e thundered in a fiery speech on what he called an ?historic war between the oppressor and the
world of Islam?.
Addressing some 4,000 students, Ahmadinejad also called for Palestinian unity, resistance and ?the annihilation of the Zionist regime?.
His arrival at the conference drew chants of ?Death to Israel?, but Ahmadinejad quickly told students to shout the slogan louder. Meanwhile, Iranian Vice President Parviz Davudi warned during a meeting here Wednesday against outside interference in talks over Tehran?s controversial nuclear programme.
?Iran recognises the IAEA and its rules - we will see any irresponsible interference as a serious threat and we demand a non-discriminatory approach,? Davudi was quoted by Russia?s RIA Novosti news agency as saying.
Davudi was speaking during a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) - an Asian regional grouping powered by Moscow and Beijing that Iran joined as an observer earlier this year.
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