October 26, 2005
Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be ' wiped off the map' and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks will destroy the Jewish state, according to Iranian media reports on Wednesday. Ahmadinejad also denounced attempts to recognize Israel or normalize relations with it. "There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world," Ahmadinejad told students Wednesday during a Tehran conference called "The World without Zionism." He was also quoted as saying: "Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury, any (Islamic leader) who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world." Ahmadinejad also repeated the words of the founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, who called for the destruction of Israel. "As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map," said Ahmadinejad, who was elected president last August.
