Iran president wants Israel "wiped off the map"
Posted on: Wednesday, 26 October 2005, 11:27 CDT
By Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that Israel should be "wiped off the map," the official IRNA news agency reported.
Support for the Palestinian cause is a central pillar of the Islamic Republic which officially refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist.
"Israel must be wiped off the map," Ahmadinejad told a conference called "The World without Zionism," attended by some 3,000 conservative students who chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America."
Under reformist President Mohammad Khatami, whose eight-year tenure ended earlier this year, Iran had shown signs of easing its implacable hostility toward Israel. Officials said Tehran might not object to a two-state solution if that was what the Palestinians wanted.
But Ahmadinejad, a former member of the hard-line Revolutionary Guards and traditional religious conservative, said there could be no let-up in its hostility to Israel.
"The Islamic world will not let its historic enemy live in its heartland," he said.
White House Spokesman Scott McClellan said Washington took such remarks seriously.
"It underscores the concerns we have about Iran's nuclear intentions," he told reporters.
The United States accuses Iran of seeking nuclear arms, whereas Tehran says it needs atomic fuel only for power stations. Iran has developed ballistic missiles able to hit Israel.
Tehran denies accusations it trains and arms Palestinian militant groups, saying it offers only moral support.
French Foreign Minister Douste-Blazy said that he had been informed of the reported remarks and had summoned Iran's ambassador to the Foreign Ministry to explain the comments.
"If these (reported) comments are true, they are unacceptable. I condemn them with the greatest firmness," he said in a statement.
(Additional reporting by Swaha Pattanaik in Paris)
Source: REUTERS
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User Comments (1)
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Posted by Adam on 09/22/2009, 11:23 Please stop these lies, if anyone takes the time to read the actual speech where Iran's president allegedly says this, you will notice that he does not want to wipe Israel off the map nor does he deny the Holocaust. Why does the media twists his words in such ways that portray him as a anti-christ? |
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