'Israel is the West's creation for Mideast dominance'

Iranian president slams "western intolerance for debate over Jewish state's existence" at "Intifada Conference" in Tehran.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 311 (R) (photo credit: REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 311 (R)
(photo credit: REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)
Israel is a creation of the West so that it could exert control over the Middle East, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in his closing remarks to the "Intifada Conference" in Tehran on Sunday.
The establishment of Israel, he said, was the "most heinous historical crime," PressTV reported.
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The Iranian president slammed what he described as a western intolerance for debate over the Jewish state's existence.
Israel, he said, has become so sanctified in western capitals that "any criticism of the Zionist regime is tantamount to being a terrorist," according to PressTV.
"The only sacred thing in Europe is the Zionist regime."
Speaking at the conference on Saturday, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected the Palestinians’ UN statehood bid , saying any deal that accepts the existence of Israel would leave a “cancerous tumor” forever threatening the security of the Middle East.
“The two-state scheme, which has been clad in the self-righteousness of the acceptance of the Palestinian government and membership at the United Nations, is nothing but a capitulation to the demands of the Zionists or the recognition of the Zionist regime on Palestinian land,” he declared.
Khamenei’s speech underlined Iran’s support for groups that oppose Israel’s existence, including Hamas, which rejected the UN bid presented by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as “begging” for statehood.
The 72-year-old cleric also sought to portray Iran as the greatest defender of the Palestinian cause, criticizing other countries in the region that have close ties to Washington.
“Governments that host Zionist embassies or economic bureaus cannot advocate support for Palestine,” he said in comments aimed, among others, at post-Mubarak Egypt with which Tehran is seeking to restore the diplomatic ties cut since 1979.
Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.