Iranian Leader: Israel will be destroyed
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-26 19:50

Iran's hard-line president called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks will destroy the Jewish state, state-run media reported Wednesday.

An Israeli mobile artillery piece is seen in position as the sun sets near Kibbutz Nahal Oz just outside the northern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2005. Israeli artillery was fired into an open area in Gaza overnight in response to Palestinian homemade rockets that were fired by the militant group Islamic Jihad into Israel. The rockets were fired in retaliation to the killing of a top Islamic Jihad militant by the Israel Army during an operation in the West Bank on Monday. [AP]

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also denounced attempts to recognize Israel or normalize relations with it.

"There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world," Ahmadinejad told students Wednesday during a Tehran conference called "The World without Zionism."

"Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury, any (Islamic leader) who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world," Ahmadinejad said.

Ahmadinejad also repeated the words of the founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who called for the destruction of Israel.

"As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map," said Ahmadinejad, who came to power in August.

Ahmadinejad referred to Israel's recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as a "trick," saying Gaza is part of the Palestinian territories and the withdrawal was meant to make Islamic states acknowledge Israel.