 |
 |
 |
|
|
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki: Erasable nation after all
|
|
|
|
|
|
| By israelinsider staff May 20, 2007 |
|
| |
 Bookmark to del.icio.us |
| |
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki clarified Saturday the statements he had made at the World Economic Forum in Jordan, denying that he was referring to Israel when he said "Every primary school student knows that it is not possible to remove a country from the map," the Jerusalem Post reported Sunday.
Mottaki had been speaking at a press conference Saturday when he made the statements. He also spoke disapprovingly of the Saudi peace plan and declared Iran's refusal to recognize the Israeli regime.
Mottaki clarified the statement to IRNA, the official Iranian news agency, making it clear that he had not been refereeing to Israel, and claiming that his original speech had been "every pupil knows that a nation like Palestine cannot be eliminated from the map."
In his clarification, Mottaki repeated Iran's refusal to legitimize "the Zionist regime" and also suggested that Israel was an apartheid state, saying that after the collapse of apartheid in South Africa, Iran was able to have good relations with the country.
Iranian politician and scientist Mohammad Larijani, also present at forum in Jordan, made supposedly conciliatory statements towards Israel. He has yet to retract them.
Larijani said that Israel had "nothing to fear" from Iranian nuclear developments and that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been severely misunderstood in his statements towards Israel.
According to Larijani, Ahmadinejad had referred to "erasing [Israel's] practices" pertaining to the Palestinians, and not state itself. Larijani, however, could not explain how these errors in translation could account for the Iranian president's repeated calls that Israel be wiped off the map.
Most would also find laughable the claim that Iran's nuclear developments are for purely peaceful purposes. The medium range missiles that Teheran is showing off are not intended to deliver "atoms for peace." |
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
