Madam, - Why shock and surprise is being expressed at the call made by Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel should be "wiped off the face of the earth" is something of a mystery. The Iranian government has been committed for over two decades to the total destruction of the Israeli state. It has opposed every reasonable attempt to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has funded and supported the terrorist activities of Hamas and Hizbullah.
Iran has been to the forefront of Middle East extremism and rejectionism and has encouraged its surrogates to sabotage any peaceful progress made by launching rocket attacks on Israeli towns and cities and causing death and destruction by suicide bombings.
The speech of the Iranian president not only threatens Israelis with further attacks but clearly lays down a marker that any Palestinian leader who enters into any new agreements with Israel is a legitimate target. It seems Iran does not genuinely wish to bring about an independent Palestinian State, nor does it respect the right of Palestinians to negotiate their own destiny. It merely sees the Israeli-Palestinian dispute as a conflict to be manipulated for its own ends.
Both Ireland and other EU states, for reasons of economic and political expediency, have for many years been in denial and have chosen to ignore the malign influence of the actions and policies of successive Iranian governments in the Middle East. No coherent, co-ordinated, comprehensive public initiative has ever been taken on behalf of all EU states to stop Iran funding Middle Eastern terrorism and end its destructive opposition to an Israeli-Palestinian settlement. Until Iran stops meddling, the present bloodshed will continue and peace and stability will not be achieved.
Perhaps Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's outburst will now force both this State and all EU governments to confront this reality. - Yours, etc,
ALAN SHATTER, Upper Ely Place, Dublin 2.