MIDDLE EAST: Israel is to seek an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in the wake of the remark by Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that Israel should be "wiped off the map".
"We have decided to open a broad diplomatic offensive," Silvan Shalom, the country's foreign minister, told Israel Radio yesterday. "We have decided to turn to the security council for an emergency session. I have called on all my counterparts through the world not to turn a blind eye and to stop once and for all the Iranian games." He added that it would "be a nightmare if one day we wake up and discover that Iran has nuclear weapons".
Dismissing the international condemnation, Mr Ahmadinejad stood by his remark yesterday: "My words were the Iranian nation's words. Westerners are free to comment, but their reactions are invalid," he told the official Irna news agency.
The sharp international response to the president's views surprised Israel, which had initially condemned his words but also saw them as a reflection of Iranian policy over the past 25 years. But the uproar has given Israel an opportunity to press its case that Iran is a dangerous country which cannot be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons. Israel is also taking advantage of the confrontation to highlight links between Tehran and armed Palestinian groups.
"The sad fact about the statement of the president of Iran is that he was correctly articulating the policy of his regime, which has given hands-on support to the most extreme terrorist elements in the Middle East," said Mark Regev, the Israeli foreign ministry spokesman.
The Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, joined the condemnation yesterday. "I urge the president of Iran to focus on adding Palestine to the map alongside Israel, not calling for wiping a country from the map," he said. "All those who want to support the Palestinian cause must support a two-state solution, with Palestine alongside Israel."
Although Mr Ahmadinejad showed no sign of backtracking yesterday, a former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, made conciliatory remarks, suggesting that a referendum be held for Israelis and Palestinians to decide on their future.
Iran's embassy in Moscow, which in the past has been used to make statements on foreign policy, tried to placate critics with a statement saying that the president "did not have any intention to speak up in sharp terms and enter into a conflict". This was the first official Iranian comment since the diplomatic storm broke. "It's absolutely clear that, in his remarks, Mr Ahmadinejad . . . underlined the key position of Iran, based on the necessity to hold free elections in the occupied territories," the embassy's statement said.
The Vatican yesterday condemned the call by Iran's president, saying it was "particularly serious and unacceptable", and appealed for a halt to renewed violence in the region.
Russia and China, which relies heavily on Iranian oil, would probably block a security council vote against Iran, although Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, has warned that the president's remarks could provide ammunition for those who want the security council to act against Iran.
Yesterday, at least 100,000 people took part in al-Quds Day protests in Iran, while similar rallies were held in other parts of the Middle East. Ayatollah Khomeini declared the last Friday in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan al-Quds Day - a day of protest for the liberation of Jerusalem. - (Guardian Service)