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Iranian President Mahmood Ahmadinejad and bodyguard (AP)
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| By Associated Press October 27, 2005 |
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| Iranian dissident students protest against Iranian nuclear threats (AP) |
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Governments around the world expressed shock and scorn Thursday at the Iranian president's call for Israel to be "wiped off the map," and several summoned Tehran's envoys in their capitals for a reprimand.
However, Israeli calls for Iran to be suspended from the United Nations over the remarks by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were not immediately taken up by other nations.
In a speech Wednesday, Ahmadinejad denounced Israel and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks "will wipe this stigma from the face of the Islamic world."
Citing the words of the founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Ahmadinejad said: "Israel must be wiped off the map."
Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres called for Iran to be expelled from the United Nations. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Israel had not decided whether to ask officially for Iran's removal from the world body.
Israel's deputy ambassador to Britain, Zvi Rav-Ner, said it was unheard of for a U.N. member state to call "for genocide and wiping off of another member state of the U.N."
"This is a clear contravention and breach of the U.N. charter and it should be dealt with by the international community," he told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
The 25 European Union leaders, meeting at Hampton Court Palace near London, condemned the remarks, saying they "will cause concern about Iran's role in the region and its future intentions."
Britain, which holds the rotating EU presidency, summoned a senior Iranian diplomat to the Foreign Office for a reprimand.
Relations between the EU and Iran have deteriorated over the past months after negotiations with Tehran failed to get Iran to drop parts of its nuclear program that could be used to make weapons. The EU and the United States fear Iran aims to use a civilian nuclear program to conceal weapons production. Iran says its nuclear program is only to generate power.
The EU and U.S. are keen to bring the issue to the U.N. Security Council.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana also spoke out against Ahmadinejad's statement. "If correctly reported, this position is unacceptable," Solana said. However, the EU stopped short of calling for Iran to be suspended from the U.N.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he condemned the Iranian statement "absolutely." Asked whether he believed Iran should be expelled from the U.N., Barroso said: "I will not make any concrete proposal now."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, on a visit to Israel, criticized the Iranian leader. "I don't agree that anyone should challenge the right of any U.N. member to exist, this is indeed inadmissible," Lavrov said.
But on Wednesday he brushed off Israel's calls for Security Council action, saying the matter is "too serious to be guided by politics."
Britain's Foreign Office called Ahmadinejad's comments "deeply disturbing and sickening," and said Iran's charge d'affaires would be summoned later Thursday.
France, Spain and the Netherlands summoned the Iranian ambassadors in their capitals to explain the remarks.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said Iranian Ambassador Sadegh Kharrazi "was reminded that the right of Israel to exist cannot be contested."
Russia's Foreign Ministry said it had summoned Iran's ambassador to Russia Thursday for an explanation. The ministry said that Iranian ambassador Gholamreza Ansari had been told that Ahmadinejad's remarks were dangerous "in such (an) explosive region as the Middle East."
The German Foreign Ministry also called in a representative of the Iranian Embassy to protest the comments, while Italy said the remarks confirmed concerns over Tehran's nuclear program.
"The contents and tone of such unacceptable statements confirm worries over the political positions pursued by the new Iranian leadership, especially concerning the nuclear dossier," the Italian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern said he was "shocked and saddened" by the remarks.
"They can only have a very negative effect in a troubled region, and they contribute nothing to relations between the European Union and Iran," he said.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew condemned the comments in a strongly worded statement.
"We are in the 21st century. Canada will never accept such hatred, intolerance and anti-Semitism. Never," the statement said.
The Czech Republic's foreign ministry said in a statement Thursday that it condemned Ahmadinejad's "uncivilized" threat that jeopardized the stability of the Middle East.
On Wednesday, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Ahmadinejad's remarks "serve to underscore our concern as well as the international community's concern about Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons."
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