World Condemns Iran for President's Remarks

In a speech that has triggered outrage around the world, Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map". Ahmadinejad made his comments at a conference called "the World without Zionism". Gregg Benzow has more

As students chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America", Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinijad said there could be no let-up in its hostility toward Israel. The Islamic world, he said, will not let its historic enemy live in its heartland.

He urged those gathered at the conference to shout louder. Iran's Islamic Republic officially refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist.

Deutsche Welle's Middle East expert, Peter Phillip, expressed surprise at the blunt remarks:

"In Iran the attitude towards Israel has always very hostile, very negative, and it was even under Ahmadinejad's predecessor Khatami that the official line was against Israel only nobody would stand up in the open and call for the destruction of Israel."

Call for UN expulsion

Ahmadinejad's speech has unleashed a firestorm of protest around the world – first and foremost from Israel itself. Deputy prime minister Shimon Peres called for Iran's expulsion from the United Nations.

The president's call, he said, contravenes the United Nations charter and is tantamount to a crime against humanity. Peres said it was inconceivable for a man calling for genocide to be at the head of a member country of the United Nations.

The United States, Russia, Britain, France, Canada, Australia, Spain and Germany strongly condemned the president's remarks. EU countries said they would summon Iranian envoys and demand an explanation.

Israel's foreign minister Silvan Shalom said that Jerusalem believed Iran was trying a smoke screen to buy time so it could develop a nuclear bomb.

"This kind of regime," he said, "is very, very extreme and it would a nightmare for the international community if it had a nuclear bomb." In Washington, the White House said the words of the hardline Iranian president underlined US concerns about Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Iran says its nuclear program is a peaceful effort to generate electricity, but Ahmadinejad's comments cast a dark shadow over that claim.

Waning international support for nuclear programme

"Now that Iran is calling for the destruction of another state I think the number of people who support Iran on the nuclear issue will be reduced considerably", Peter Phillip concludes.

Britain's Foreign Office called the comments "deeply disturbing" and "sickening". A spokesman said the latest suicide bombing which killed at least five people in Israel on Wednesday illustrated the horrible reality of the violence being praised by Ahmadinejad.

Canada's foreign minister Pierre Pettigrew blasted Iran saying we cannot tolerate such hatred and intolerance. He also said Ottawa would put forward a resolution at the UN to censure Iran for human rights violations.

In Berlin, the German government said the remarks were "completely unacceptable and should be condemned in the strongest terms." Together with Britain and France, Germany is negotiating with Tehran to end Iran's controversial nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad's comments are the first time in years that such a high-ranking Iranian official has called for Israel's destruction, even though such slogans are still used regularly at regime rallies.

Gregg Benzow

Qantara.de

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