IRAN: The Islamic Republic of Iran sought to affirm its leadership of Muslims and Arabs who reject US domination of the Middle East by holding an international conference in support of Palestine here at the weekend.
The final declaration last night said the conference "considers the Zionist regime presently on the soil of Palestine as . . . foreign to the regional . . . fabric, and . . . has no right of existence".
Earlier, Iranian foreign minister Manoushehr Mottaki announced his country will give US$50 million to the Hamas-led Palestinian authority, which has been ostracised by the US, EU and conservative Arabs.
Tehran's championing of the most radical Palestinian groups followed closely on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's announcement that Iran has mastered the nuclear fuel cycle, and adds extreme polarisation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the already tense confrontation over Iran's nuclear power programme.
Opening speeches by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's spiritual leader, and Mr Ahmadinejad were caustic. The ayatollah alluded five times to Israel as "the usurper regime", and condemned "the venom of western liberal democracy" which he said "is as much discredited and despised in the Muslim world as the socialism and communism of the former eastern bloc".
The US invasion of Iraq, the ayatollah said, "has unmasked US pretensions of bringing democracy to the Middle East" and made a mockery of "absolute American power and invincibility".
Referring to the nuclear dispute, Mr Ahmadinejad said "the bullying powers . . . do not allow the countries of the region to tread the path to progress and advancement".
In several ways his speech mirrored statements by the Bush administration. Washington has identified Tehran as the principal threat to world peace. The Iranian president called the existence of Israel "an unending and unrestrained threat".
Washington predicts the Iranian regime will fall if shaken; Mr Ahmadinejad said "the Zionist regime is falling apart . . . a decaying and crumbling tree that will fall with a storm."
Like President Bush, Mr Ahmadinejad believes "that good will prevail and evil will disappear" - though both obviously define themselves as good and the other as evil.
On Israel's occupation of Arab land, the Iranian leader asked: "How long can this situation last and be tolerated?" US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice used virtually the same words about the Iranian nuclear programme.
President Ahmadinejad, who has called the Nazi extermination of an estimated six million Jews a "myth", again questioned the veracity of the holocaust. "If there is serious doubt over the holocaust, there is no doubt over the catastrophe and holocaust being faced by the Palestinians.
"I tell the governments who support Zionism to . . . let the migrants [ Jews] return to their countries of origin. If you think you owe them something, give them some of your land."
The second World War theme was echoed in posters decorating the conference hall. Artwork that would be deeply offensive to Jews showed Adolf Hitler giving a Nazi salute beneath an Israeli flag, and a Nazi swastika with the Star of David at its centre.
Following his remarks, politicians from the ruling Christian Democrat Party in Germany suggested Mr Ahmadinejad should be banned from attending World Cup matches in Germany.
Hamas, which won Palestinian elections in January, this weekend found itself at the centre of a tug-of-war between "moderate" Arab governments, that plea for conciliation, and Tehran, which seeks confrontation. The Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Ghait cited "scheduling problems" when he snubbed the Hamas foreign minister Mahmoud Zahar by refusing to receive him.
From Cairo, Amr Musa, head of the 22-member Arab League, urged Hamas to accept King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia's plan to demand peace with Israel based on UN resolutions. This has been the official Arab position since 2002. Mr Zahar said he would convey the message to Hamas leaders, but noted that Israel has never accepted the plan.
In Tehran, Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas's politburo, used stronger rhetoric, telling the conference the "international community" has been hijacked by the US, which he says has declared war on Palestinians. "We are ready to live on olives and pepper to continue resistance," he said. "If we are pushed to choose between government and resistance, we will choose resistance."
Anis Naccache, the co-ordinator of the al-Amman Islamic Research Centre for Strategic Affairs in Tehran, said UN resolutions and international law are no longer relevant. "We don't want international legitimacy," said Mr Naccache, who spent 10 years in a French prison for his part in an attempted assassination. "After Iraq, Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib, nobody can sell us this product any longer."