'Israel will be wiped out one day'
Wednesday December 13 2006
IRAN'S hardline president said yesterday that Israel will be one day be "wiped out" just like the Soviet Union was, drawing applause from participants in a world conference casting doubt on the Nazi Holocaust during World War II.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments were likely to further fuel the outcry sparked by his hosting of the two-day gathering, which has gathered some of Europe and the United States' most best-known Holocaust deniers.
Anger over the conference could have political fallout, further isolating Iran and prompting a harder line from the West, which is considering sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program.
But Ahmadinejad appeared to revel in his meeting yesterday with the conference delegates, shaking hands with American delegates and sitting near six anti-Israeli Jewish participants, dressed in ultra-Orthodox coats and hats.
Ahmadinejad repeated predictions that Israel will be "wiped out", a phrase he first used in a speech in October, raising a firestorm of international criticism.
"The Zionist regime will be wiped out soon the same way the Soviet Union was, and humanity will achieve freedom," Ahmadinejad told the participants during a meeting in his offices, according to the official IRNA news agency.
He said elections should be held among "Jews, Christians and Muslims so the population of Palestine can select their government and destiny for themselves in a democratic manner".
"By the grace of God, the arc of the Zionist regime's life has reversed and is heading downward. This is a divine promise and the public demand of all nations of the world," he said, bringing applause from the delegates.
Ahmadinejad has used anti-Israeli rhetoric and comments casting doubt on the Holocaust to rally anti-Western supporters at home and abroad, particularly in Asia and the Middle East. Several times he has referred to the Holocaust as a "myth" used to impose the state of Israel on the Arab world.
Ahmadinejad announced that the conference had decided to set up a "fact-finding commission" determine whether the Holocaust happened or not. The commission will "help end a 60-year-old dispute", the president said.
He called on Western governments "not to harass members of this commission and allow them to carry out more research and make all issues transparent".
The Tehran conference was touted by participants as an exercise in academic free expression and a chance to openly consider whether 6 million Jews really died in the Holocaust.
It gathered 67 writers and researchers from 30 countries, most of whom argue that either the Holocaust did not happen or was vastly exaggerated.
Many had been jailed or fined in France, Germany or Austria, which have criminalised Holocast denial. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday that the conference was "shocking beyond belief" and called the conference "a symbol of sectarianism and hatred."
He said he saw little hope of engaging Iran in constructive action in the Middle East. In Washington, the White House condemned Iran for convening a conference it called "an affront to the entire civilized world".
- Ali Akbar Dareini
