Iran: Israel will cease to exist like USSR

Making a speech at the Holocaust conference in Teheran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stated that Israel’s days were numbered. “Israel is about to crash. The Soviet Union disappeared, and this will also be the fate of the Zionist regime. Humanity will be free,” said he. "This is God's promise and the wish of all the world's nations," he added.

Photo: Iran: Israel will cease to exist like USSR

The delegates including ultra-Orthodox anti-Israeli Jews participating in the conference applauded to Ahmadinejad’s remarks. He added that "those who once supported the Zionist regime must know that every day that passes, this regime's interests are in danger, as well as their dignity. We recommend that as they authorized this regime, they should now 'fold' it. I hope that the Zionist regime's supporters will respond positively to this human invitation."

The President of Iran thus launched another international scandal. Ahmadinejad said that the killing of 6 million Jews during WWII was a myth which the Jews have been using ever since for their own protection and prosperity.

Politicians and high-ranking officials from world’s leading countries harshly condemned both Ahmadinejad’s statements and the conference in Teheran. Spokespeople for the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs said that the conference was “not necessary and not useful.” Officials from the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry said that the government of Iran was mocking at the memory and victims of Holocaust.

In the past 24 hours, the conference was condemned across the world. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Berlin, condemned the convention, as well as French Foreign Minister Phillipe Douste-Blazy, who said that "discussing these issues is unacceptable."

Pope Benedict XVI said that the Holocaust was a terrible tragedy which one cannot remain indifferent to.

US State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said that the conference is "just absolutely outrageous. You know, you get to a point where it's hard to find the words to describe the statements that are emanating from the Iranian president, continuing about this commentary about his desire to wipe Israel off the face of the map," the AP reports.

Source: agencies