Iran’s leader says Jewish state ‘should be wiped from map’
Iran’s hardline President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has stirred up a diplomatic storm and risked further isolating his country by saying that Israel should be “wiped off the map”.
Iran’s refusal officially to recognise Israel’s right to exist is a major obstacle to improved relations between Tehran and the West and has fuelled Israeli fears that the Islamic republic is bent on building a nuclear bomb. Yesterday’s diatribe – the first such outburst in many years by an Iranian leader – will have done nothing to assuage fears.
Speaking to 4,000 radical students attending a conference entitled “The World Without Zionism”, the President was greeted by chants of “Death to Israel”.The former member of the fanatical Revolutionary Guards told his audience that “leaders of the Muslim nation who recognise Israel will burn in the flames of anger of their own people”.
independent.co.uk