Iranian president slams Israel, calls for its destruction

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that Israel would be "wiped off the map" soon, slamming the recognition of Israel as a surrender of the Islamic world.

"Undoubtedly, the new wave (attacks) in Palestine and the growing turmoil in the Islamic world would in no time wipe Israel off," Ahmadinejad told a conference entitled "The World without Zionism" attended by thousands of students.

Ahmadinejad said that any country which recognized the Israeli government was actually acknowledging "the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world", adding that such countries would "be disgraced forever".

"The establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world," Ahmadinejad said.

The hardline president, who took power in early August, also defined Israel's recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as a " conspiracy", saying that Gaza was a part of the Palestinian territory and the withdrawal of the Israelis was aimed at gaining reorganization of the Islamic world.

"We should not be satisfied just by their concession of a piece of land," Ahmadinejad stressed.

Ahmadinejad's comments sounded unusually tough and harsh against the somewhat softened stances of Iranian officials in recent years, especially after the moderate Mohammad Khatami, Ahmadinejad's predecessor, took power in 1997.

Iran holds a sympathetic attitude towards the fight for independence of the Palestinians and refuses to acknowledge the Jewish state while Israel echoes the US accusation that Iran is building nuclear weapons secretly and state sponsoring terrorists.

Source: Xinhua