United Press International,
TEHRAN: The Iranian president's recent remarks about Israel have touched off an international crisis with the Islamic republic and a vast part of the world entangled in a war of words.
Speaking Wednesday at a conference themed “The World Without Zionism,” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recalled an earlier statement by the late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that, “The Qods occupier regime (Israel) should be wiped off the earth.”
“The establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world. The Islamic world will not let its historic enemy live in its heartland,” Ahmadinejad said in his comments which were the first time in years by a top Iranian official openly calling for Israel's destruction.
The world community expressed outrage at Ahmadinejad's controversial speech with many leaders from around the world strongly condemning his remarks.
In a statement issued Friday, leaders of the 25 European Union member states who had gathered at Hampton Court to debate Europe's response to globalization, “condemned in the strongest terms” the Iranian leader's words.
“Calls for violence, and for the destruction of any state, are manifestly inconsistent with any claim to be a mature and responsible member of the international community,” they said.
In separate reactions, French President Jacques Chirac called Ahmadinejad's words “senseless and irresponsible,” warning they “run the risk for his country of being left on the outside by other nations.”
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's remarks, however, were even more candid and angry when he said: “These sentiments are completely and totally unacceptable. I have never come across a situation where the president of a country says they want to wipe out another country — this is not acceptable.”
“I have been answering questions on Iran with everyone saying to me, tell us you are not going to do anything about Iran. If they carry on like this, the question people will be asking is, when are going to do something about it,” Blair said.
U.N. chief Kofi Annan was equally upset when a statement, released by his spokesman, said, “The secretary general has read with dismay the remarks about Israel attributed to Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.”
“He recalls in particular that, under the United Nations Charter, all members have undertaken to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state,” the statement said, reminding all member states that Israel is a long-standing United Nations member “with the same rights and obligations as every other member.”
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