President Ahmadinejad Calls for a United Arab Front Against Israel

Iran's Ahmadinejad attacks Israel at Iraq conference

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks during a two-day conference in Tehran on security in Iraq. The conference opened with Ahmadinejad calling on Islamic countries to mobilize against Israel and "remove" the "Zionist regime."(AFP/Hassan Ammar)

July 8, 2006

by Farhad Pouladi

TEHRAN (AFP) -A regional conference on security in Iraq opened in Iran with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling on Islamic countries to mobilize against Israel and "remove" the "Zionist regime."

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also called for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq and blamed US-led troops for the ongoing violence there.

"The basic problem in the Islamic world is the existence of the Zionist regime, and the Islamic world and the region must mobilize to remove this problem," Ahmadinejad said at the opening of the two-day conference.

"Today there is a strong will... to remove the Zionist regime and implement a legal Palestinian regime all over Palestine. The continued survival of this regime (Israel) means nothing but suffering for the region," he said.

"The biggest threat today for the region is the existence of the fake Zionist regime," he added, before going on to attack Israel's supporters.

"I am reminding them to stop the crimes of this corrupt government before it is too late, and open the way for a government arising from the votes of the indigenous people of Palestine, all over Palestine."

Two weeks ago Israel launched a massive incursion into the Gaza Strip after Palestinian militants from three groups, including Hamas's armed wing, captured an Israeli soldier in a deadly raid on a border outpost.

With talk of the violence overshadowing the topic of Iraq, Ahmadinejad -- who has in the past called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" or moved as far away as Alaska -- also issued an ominous warning to Western powers.

"Nations in the region will be more furious every day, and it will not be long before this intense fury will lead to a huge explosion," he said.

"The waves of fury of Muslim nations will not be confined within the boundaries of the region, and the people who close their ears to the cries of the Palestinians and blindly support this regime will be responsible for the consequences," Ahmadinejad warned.

Iran does not recognize Israel and is opposed to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The foreign ministers of Arab nations attending the conference also condemned Israel for its "increasing aggression against the Palestinian people" and attacked the "silence" of the international community.

"The Arab foreign ministers participating in today's Tehran meeting expressed their strong condemnation of this continuing and increasing aggression against the Palestinian people," Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said in a statement on behalf of officials from Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

The statement said the officials also "voiced sorrow over international silence, and held United Nations Security Council members responsible for the dangerous violations of international laws and treaties."

Officials from the host country Iran and Turkey, plus the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), are also in Tehran for the meeting.

On the main topic of Iraq, Iran said it would ask delegates to agree on a call for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops.

"Iran, as the host of the conference, has prepared a draft statement and the experts have to discuss it," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told state television.

"The continued presence of foreign troops in Iraq and their inability to control the situation and their delaying of handing over the affairs to the Iraqis has caused damage such as the desecration of the holy sites, the abduction of Iraqi officials and foreign diplomats, as well as the martyrdom of Iranian pilgrims," Mottaki also told delegates.

"Therefore, the Islamic republic believes that the affairs of the Iraqis should be handed over to the elected government of Iraq and that foreign troops should leave Iraqi soil as soon as possible," he said.

Ahmadinejad also said it was "essential to prevent the coming and going and entry of people and terrorist groups in Iraq that pursue no aims but to create insecurity, disagreement and hatred, and who prepare the ground for a long presence of foreigners in this country."

Improved security, he added, "will leave no pretext for the presence of foreigners."

The last such conference on Iraq took place in April 2005 in Istanbul with little noticeable effect, and a previous meeting in Tehran in November 2004 also failed to yield concrete results.

Iran -- along with Syria -- has also been repeatedly accused of supporting insurgents.

Link:

Enemies of Islam oppose expansion of ties between Iran, Syria, Iraq: President