looks like it’s pretty popular too
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/10/28/iran.reaction/index.html
Thousands of Iranians stage anti-Israel demonstrations
Iran moves to ease reaction to anti-Israel remarks
Friday, October 28, 2005; Posted: 9:23 a.m. EDT (13:23 GMT)
(CNN) — Thousands of Iranians staged anti-Israel protests across the country Friday and repeated calls by their ultraconservative president demanding the Jewish state’s destruction.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — marching with the protesters — signaled he stood by his remarks, even as Iranian officials tried to defuse the issue.
“My word is the same as that of (the) Iranian nation,” he told the official IRNA news agency.
“They are free to say but their words lack any credit,” he said, when asked about global reaction to his comments.
During a meeting with protesting students at Iran’s Interior Ministry on Wednesday, Ahmadinejad quoted a remark from Ayatollah Khomeini — founder of Iran’s Islamic revolution — that Israel “must be wiped out from the map of the world.”
But on Friday, Iran’s Moscow embassy — often used by Tehran to issue statements on foreign policy –said Ahmadinejad did not mean to “speak up in such sharp terms.”
The embassy said Ahmadinejad “did not have any intention to speak up in such sharp terms and enter into a conflict.”
“It’s absolutely clear that, in his remarks, Mr. Ahmadinejad, president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, underlined the key position of Iran, based on the necessity to hold free elections on the occupied territories,” Reuters quoted the embassy statement as saying.
Ahmadinejad’s comments drew swift and harsh reaction from governments in Europe and North America, as well as from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in remarks issued Thursday by the Israeli government press office, said he believed any country that calls for the destruction of another cannot be a member of the United Nations.
Meanwhile, a day after the global condemnation, thousands of Iranians rallied in Tehran and other cities as part of al-Quds — Jerusalem — Day protests,Demonstrators held banners with anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian slogans.
One banner read “Death to Israel, death to America,” The Associated Press reported.
The state-organized rallies were first held in 1979 after Shiite Muslim clerics took power in Iran.
One of the strongest reactions to Ahmadinejad’s remarks came from British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said they were “completely and totally unacceptable.”
“I felt a real sense of revulsion at those remarks,” said Blair, who spoke Thursday at a press briefing after a European Union summit near London.
“There has been a long time in which I’ve been answering questions on Iran with everyone saying to me ‘tell us you’re not going to do anything about Iran,'” he said.
“If they carry on like this, the question people are going to be asking us is, ‘When are you going to do something about this,’ because you imagine a state like that with an attitude like that having a nuclear weapon.”
Also Thursday, Annan expressed “dismay” over the Iranian president’s comments urging the destruction of Israel.
In a statement, Annan reminded “all member states that Israel is a long-standing member of the United Nations with the same rights and obligations as every other member.”
“Under the United Nations Charter, all members have undertaken to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state,” the statement said.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Ahmadinejad’s views “underscores our concern and the international community’s concerns about Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.”
Ottawa also issued a strong rebuke, with Canadian Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew saying: “We cannot tolerate comments of such hatred, such anti-Semitism, such intolerance. These comments are all the more troubling given that we know of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”
Across Europe, the reaction was equally strong. (Full story)
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Thursday he condemned the Iranian statement “absolutely.”
“It is a completely unacceptable statement, of course. We should respect borders and respect the integrity of Israel, and we want Israel to live in peace with its neighbors,” he told BBC radio.
Asked whether he believed that Iran should be expelled from the U.N., Barroso said: “I condemn absolutely that statement, but I will not make any concrete proposal now.”
Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published,
looks like it’s pretty popular too
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/10/28/iran.reaction/index.html
Thousands of Iranians stage anti-Israel demonstrations
Iran moves to ease reaction to anti-Israel remarks
Friday, October 28, 2005; Posted: 9:23 a.m. EDT (13:23 GMT)
(CNN) — Thousands of Iranians staged anti-Israel protests across the country Friday and repeated calls by their ultraconservative president demanding the Jewish state’s destruction.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — marching with the protesters — signaled he stood by his remarks, even as Iranian officials tried to defuse the issue.
“My word is the same as that of (the) Iranian nation,” he told the official IRNA news agency.
“They are free to say but their words lack any credit,” he said, when asked about global reaction to his comments.
During a meeting with protesting students at Iran’s Interior Ministry on Wednesday, Ahmadinejad quoted a remark from Ayatollah Khomeini — founder of Iran’s Islamic revolution — that Israel “must be wiped out from the map of the world.”
But on Friday, Iran’s Moscow embassy — often used by Tehran to issue statements on foreign policy –said Ahmadinejad did not mean to “speak up in such sharp terms.”
The embassy said Ahmadinejad “did not have any intention to speak up in such sharp terms and enter into a conflict.”
“It’s absolutely clear that, in his remarks, Mr. Ahmadinejad, president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, underlined the key position of Iran, based on the necessity to hold free elections on the occupied territories,” Reuters quoted the embassy statement as saying.
Ahmadinejad’s comments drew swift and harsh reaction from governments in Europe and North America, as well as from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in remarks issued Thursday by the Israeli government press office, said he believed any country that calls for the destruction of another cannot be a member of the United Nations.
Meanwhile, a day after the global condemnation, thousands of Iranians rallied in Tehran and other cities as part of al-Quds — Jerusalem — Day protests,Demonstrators held banners with anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian slogans.
One banner read “Death to Israel, death to America,” The Associated Press reported.
The state-organized rallies were first held in 1979 after Shiite Muslim clerics took power in Iran.
One of the strongest reactions to Ahmadinejad’s remarks came from British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said they were “completely and totally unacceptable.”
“I felt a real sense of revulsion at those remarks,” said Blair, who spoke Thursday at a press briefing after a European Union summit near London.
“There has been a long time in which I’ve been answering questions on Iran with everyone saying to me ‘tell us you’re not going to do anything about Iran,'” he said.
“If they carry on like this, the question people are going to be asking us is, ‘When are you going to do something about this,’ because you imagine a state like that with an attitude like that having a nuclear weapon.”
Also Thursday, Annan expressed “dismay” over the Iranian president’s comments urging the destruction of Israel.
In a statement, Annan reminded “all member states that Israel is a long-standing member of the United Nations with the same rights and obligations as every other member.”
“Under the United Nations Charter, all members have undertaken to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state,” the statement said.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Ahmadinejad’s views “underscores our concern and the international community’s concerns about Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.”
Ottawa also issued a strong rebuke, with Canadian Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew saying: “We cannot tolerate comments of such hatred, such anti-Semitism, such intolerance. These comments are all the more troubling given that we know of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”
Across Europe, the reaction was equally strong. (Full story)
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Thursday he condemned the Iranian statement “absolutely.”
“It is a completely unacceptable statement, of course. We should respect borders and respect the integrity of Israel, and we want Israel to live in peace with its neighbors,” he told BBC radio.
Asked whether he believed that Iran should be expelled from the U.N., Barroso said: “I condemn absolutely that statement, but I will not make any concrete proposal now.”
Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published,
Sign In
