http://www2.irna.com/en/news/view/menu-234/0705202308010547.htm
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki denied some western news agencies claims on his speech in the World Economic Forum about the Zionist regime.He told IRNA, "I said to the meeting every pupil knows that a nation like Palestinians cannot be eliminated from the map." Some western news agencies quoted Mottaki on Saturday saying that every pupil knows it is impossible to eliminate any country from the map.
He added, "Although Shah had good relations with South African apartheid regime and the Zionist regime, after the Islamic revolution victory, the ties were severed."
"After the collapse of the apartheid regime in South Africa, now we have very good ties with that country," Mottaki said.
He stressed, "We cast a negative vote on the Zionist regime credential in the UN, which means we do not recognize the regime." The 3-day forum started on Friday afternoon in the resort city of Bahr ul Meyet in Jordan and Iran's delegation headed by foreign minister Mottaki attended the meeting.
Iranian delegation departed Amman for Tehran on Saturday evening.
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Iran: no intention to wipe Israel off the map
Source: Muslim News
http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=12767
SOUTH SHUNEH, Jordan, (Xinhua) -- Mohammad Larijani, Iran's national security chief said Friday that his country was not intending to wipe Israel "off the map."
Larijani made the remarks during a session of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East which is opened on the shores of the Dead Sea earlier in the day.
Larijani said that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had spoken of "erasing the practices" followed by Israel against the Palestinians, rather than erasing Israel.
The Western media deliberately distorted President Ahmadinejad's words in their reports, he said, adding "let me tell you one thing about taking Israel off the map. It was a by-product of the Western media."
Ahmadinejad has reportedly made verbal attacks on Israel and has also provoked outrage by describing the Holocaust as a "myth."
Larijani said if Israel and the Palestinians can reach a viable settlement, Iran would support it. "When peace will come, Iran will be part of it."
When asked whether that meant he could envisage a day when Iran would recognize Israel, Larijani said "this is a premature question."
The World Economic Forum opened its meeting in South Shuneh on Friday. More than 1,000 participants, including 16 heads of state, from 56 countries gathered here to discuss ways to advance economic diversification and peace in the troubled Mideast region.
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Iran not seeking to wipe Israel off map
Source: AFP via Khaleej Times Online
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2007/May/middleeast_May320.xml§ion=middleeast&col=
19 May 2007
SHUNEH, Jordan - Iran said on Saturday that it does not seek the destruction of Israel, although it does not recognise the Jewish state as legitimate.
“We are not talking about eliminating any nation or any country,” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in reference to Iran’s position towards Israel.
“A primary school student also knows that it is not possible to remove a country from the map,” he told delegates to the World Economic Forum on the Middle East held in Jordan.
However, he stood by his country’s position in not recognising Israel as a “legal” regime, saying the future of historical Palestine should be decided in a referendum among its original inhabitants --including Christians, Jews and Muslims and those of them who are refugees.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has earned notoriety for his repeated verbal attacks on Israel and provoked outrage by describing the Holocaust as a “myth.”
Israel considers Iran its arch enemy.
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Or not...
Iran's Mottaki says map comments about Palestinians
Sun May 20, 2007 9:35 AM IST
Source: Reuters India
http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-05-20T084132Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-299060-1.xml&archived=False
DEAD SEA, Jordan (Reuters) - Iran's foreign minister said on Saturday he had referred to the Palestinians, not Israel, when he said a nation could not be removed from the map, the official IRNA news agency said.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had earlier appeared to contradict a previous statement by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling for Israel to be wiped out.
"Every primary school student knows that it is not possible to remove a country from the map and that is very clear," he told a conference in Jordan when asked about Ahmadinejad's controversial remarks.
"We are not talking about the invasion of any country," he said. He added that Iran believed that "without justice" no peace plan would end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
But IRNA carried a report later on Saturday saying Mottaki denied "some Western media reports as quoting him about the Zionist regime," referring to Iran's arch-foe Israel.
"In this meeting, I said that every primary school student knows that a nation like the Palestinian nation cannot be erased from geographic maps," IRNA quoted him as saying.
"What we are talking about is a regime that has an illegal basis," he said about Israel.
Ahmadinejad caused an international storm in 2005 when he said that Israel should be wiped off the map. Iranian officials have claimed that that remark should not be seen as a threat.
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