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Iran Under Fire Over Anti-Israel Remarks
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"We must submit a clear-cut request to Annan and the Security Council to obtain Iran's expulsion from the UN," Peres said.
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WORLD
CAPITALS, October 27, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) –
Anti-Israel rhetoric by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad drew ire
Thursday, October 27, with the Jewish state calling for Tehran's
ouster from the United Nations and a number of western states
expressed outrage.
"We
must submit a clear-cut request to the UN secretary general (Kofi
Annan) and the Security Council to obtain Iran's expulsion from the
United Nations," said Israeli Vice-Premier Shimon Peres in an
open letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Agence France Presse (AFP)
reported Thursday, October 27.
"It
is inconceivable for a man calling for genocide to be at the head of a
member country of the United Nations."
Addressing
a conference in Tehran Wednesday entitled "The World without
Zionism", the Iranian president said that Israel's establishment
was "a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic
world".
"As
the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map," he said in a
reference to Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini.
Ahmadinejad's
comments were the first time in years that such a high-ranking Iranian
official had called for Israel's eradication, even though such
rhetoric is still regularly used at regime rallies.
Ahmadinejad,
a veteran of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, took office in August after
scoring a landslide win in a June presidential election.
Fury
The
remarks have triggered widespread world outrage with the European
Union trio -- Britain, France and Germany -- saying their foreign
ministers would summon the Iranian envoys to demand explanation over
the remarks.
"This
is a completely unacceptable statement, of course," European
Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso told BBC News Online. "I
condemn absolutely that statement."
In
the UK, a British Foreign Office spokesman described Iran's
anti-Israel remarks as "deeply disturbing and sickening".
He
said that the Foreign Office would summon the Iranian envoy to demand
explanation on the remarks.
"The
president's comments would also heighten concerns about Iran's nuclear
ambitions. We will protest to the Iranian charge d'affaires," the
spokesman said.
Britain,
which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, along with France
and Germany, has led EU efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the
standoff with Iran over its nuclear program.
France
also said it will summon Iran's ambassador to Paris to question him
over Ahmadinejad's rhetoric.
"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,"
said Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy.
In
Berlin, the German government said the comments were "completely
unacceptable".
"If
these comments were in fact made, they are completely unacceptable and
should be condemned in the strongest terms," said foreign
ministry spokesman Walter Lindner.
Australian
Prime Minister John Howard condemned what he described "very
dangerous and serious speech", saying the United Nations should
take action on the issue.
In
Madrid, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos "urgently
summoned" the Iranian ambassador to demand an explanation on the
remarks.
US
Concerns
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Ahmadinejad said Israel should be wiped off the map. (Reuters).
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In
Washington, the White House said the words of the Iranian president
also underlined US concerns about Tehran's nuclear ambitions, AFP
said.
"It
just reconfirms what we have been saying about the regime in Iran. It
underscores the concerns we have about Iran's nuclear
operations," spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.
The
IAEA board of governors passed a resolution in September finding Iran
to be in non-compliance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT).
That
paved the way for the matter to be referred to the UN Security Council
if Iran fails to suspend all nuclear fuel work or to cooperate fully
with the IAEA investigation.
The
US , and its Mideast ally Israel , accuse Iran of secretly trying to
develop nuclear weapons but Tehran denies the accusation, saying it
merely wants to produce fuel to generate nuclear energy.
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