Iran president says Israel's days are numbered
Pastor Dale Morgan
Iran president says Israel's days are numbered*
By Paul Hughes
Reuters
Tuesday, December 12, 2006; 12:32 PM
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday told
delegates at an international conference questioning the Holocaust that
Israel's days were numbered.
Ahmadinejad, who has sparked international outcry by referring to the
killing of six million Jews in World War Two as a "myth" and calling for
Israel to be "wiped off the map," launched another verbal attack on the
Jewish state.
"Thanks to people's wishes and God's will the trend for the existence of
the Zionist regime is downwards and this is what God has promised and
what all nations want," he said.
"Just as the Soviet Union was wiped out and today does not exist, so
will the Zionist regime soon be wiped out," he added.
His words received warm applause from delegates at the Holocaust
conference, who included ultra-Orthodox anti-Israel Jews and European
and American writers who argue the Holocaust was either fabricated or
exaggerated.
The Vatican, Germany and the European Commission added their voices on
Tuesday to others -- such as the United States and Israel -- who have
condemned the Tehran meeting.
Iran says it organized the conference to shed light on the reasons
behind the formation of the state of Israel after World War Two and to
allow researchers from countries where it is a crime to question the
Holocaust to speak freely.
"Iran is your home and is the home of all freedom seekers of the world,"
Ahmadinejad said. "Here you can express your views and exchange opinions
in a friendly, brotherly and free atmosphere."
"FACT-FINDING" COMMITTEE FORMED
He urged countries where Holocaust denial is a crime, to respect freedom
of speech and not to take action against any of the conference
participants on their return.
Human rights groups frequently number Iran as one of the world's worst
violators of free speech, where scores of newspapers have been closed,
journalists jailed, access to Web sites blocked and government critics
hounded out of the country.
Delegates at the meeting earlier on Tuesday agreed to form a
"fact-finding" committee to study the Holocaust.
The head of the new committee, identified as Iranian academic Mohammad
Ali Ramin, said its members were "not racist or opposed to any
particular group."
"Rather they are just seeking the truth to set humanity truly free," the
ISNA students news agency quoted him as saying, without naming the
committee members.
Robert Faurisson, a French scholar who has described the Holocaust as a
"historical lie," said the committee included members from the United
States, France, Canada, Switzerland, Austria, Iran, Bahrain and Syria,
ISNA reported.
The Vatican called the Holocaust an "immense tragedy" which had to
remain forever a warning for all people to respect the rights of others.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the Tehran meeting "shows the
danger of the situation Israel is in and in particular the threat that
Israel lives under."
She was speaking after meeting Ehud Olmert, who was on his first visit
to Germany as Israeli Prime Minister.
Germany has made it a priority to support Israel since the Holocaust
under the Nazis and the end of World War Two in 1945.
EU Commissioner Franco Frattini expressed "shock and indignation,"
adding: "Anti-Semitism has no place in Europe; nor should it in any
other part of the world."