Iran president- Israel to be destroyed”

November 21, 2005

Support for the Palestinian cause is a central pillar of the Islamic Republic, which officially refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist. “Israel must be wiped off the map,” Ahmadinejad told a conference called “The World without Zionism,” attended by some 3,000 conservative students, who chanted “Death to Israel!” and “Death to America!”

Under reformist President Mohammad Khatami, whose eight-year tenure ended earlier this year, Iran had shown signs of easing its implacable hostility towards Israel.

But Ahmadinejad, a former member of the hard-line Revolutionary Guards and traditional religious conservative, said there could be no let up. “The Islamic world will not let its historic enemy live in its heartland,” he said. Ahmadinejad, who took office in August, said Israel would be destroyed by a new wave of Palestinian attacks. “Surely the new wave of (attacks) in Palestine…will erase this stigma from the Islamic world,” he said.

The Islamic Republic News Agency, October 26, 2005

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