Ahmadinejad misunderstood, says Iran

BRUSSELS: Iran’s foreign minister denied on Monday that Tehran wanted to see Israel “wiped off the map,” saying President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been misunderstood.

“Nobody can remove a country from the map. This is a misunderstanding in Europe of what our president mentioned,” Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference, speaking in English, after addressing the European Parliament. “How is it possible to remove a country from the map? He is talking about the regime. We do not recognise legally this regime,” he said.

Mottaki’s comments came as he sought to assure EU lawmakers and institutions that Tehran had no ambitions to make nuclear weapons.

Mottaki also acknowledged the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were killed by Nazi Germany, despite Ahmadinejad saying in December that it was a myth. He told the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, speaking through an interpreter: “Our friends in Europe stress that such a crime has taken place and they have stated certain figures that were actually suffered. We have no argument about that, but what we are saying here is to put right such a horrific event, why should the Muslims pay a price?”

The political leader of militant group Hamas, which won Palestinian legislative elections last month, was in Tehran on Monday for talks with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Mottaki said it was natural such talks should take place, while making clear he rejected the West’s labelling of Hamas, which is committed to Israel’s destruction, as a terrorist group. reuters

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