Reply #8: Iranian president repeats his call for the destruction of Israel [View All]

[jseankil]

Ahmadinejad made a appearance at the Tehran rally and took a short walk with the crowd. He rejected the West's condemnation of his original comments that "Israel must be wiped off the map" as "invalid.

"My words were the Iranian nation's words. Westerners are
free to comment, but their reactions are invalid," Ahmadinejad told the official IRNA news agency.

State-run TV showed Ahmadinejad surrounded by protesters, many holding banners carrying anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian slogans including "Death to Israel, death to America."

Young girls wearing head-to-toe black chadors with green headbands covered in Islamic verses chanted anti-Israeli slogans below a banner showing caricatures of U.S. President George Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon.

Just prior, however, Iran sought to smooth over the effects of Ahmadinejad's comments, saying through its Moscow embassy that he did not mean to "speak up in such sharp terms."

World leaders have condemned the remarks, which Ahmadinejad made Wednesday. He was repeating the words of the late Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of Iran's Islamic revolution.

"Mr. Ahmadinejad did not have any intention to speak up in such sharp terms and enter into a conflict," the Iranian Embassy in Moscow said in a statement.

"It's absolutely clear that, in his remarks, Mr. Ahmadinejad, president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, underlined the key position of Iran, based on the necessity to hold free elections on the occupied territories," the statement said.

But Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was less diplomatic, telling state-run television late Thursday that Iran does not consider Israel legitimate.

"The comments expressed by the president is the declared and specific policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said. "We don't recognize the Zionist regime and don't consider it legitimate." Mottaki also said the massive demonstrations would illustrate the anger of the Islamic world over the Jewish state's existence.

China, Turkey condemn comments

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http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/638943.html