Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday proposed a “simple solution” to the Middle East
conflict, exhorting all Israelis and Palestinians to simply “go
home.”
“If the backers of the Zionist regime want to solve the
issue... the solution is simple ... everyone should go home,” the Iranian
president told participants at Tehran’s fifth annual “Conference in support of
Palestine’s intifada.”
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So now Palestinians should go home and those brought here should go to theirs,”
Ahmadinejad said, according to a translation provided by AFP.
Echoing
previous remarks, the Iranian leader described the Jewish state as “a cancerous
tumor,” which had to be removed to save the Middle East and the entire
world.
Iran’s English-language Press TV agency quoted Ahmadinejad as
describing Israel’s creation as “the most heinous historical crime,” and
slamming 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,”
he said. “The only sacred thing in Europe is the Zionist regime.”
Hamas
politburo chief Khaled Mashaal attended the event, as did lawmakers from 20
countries around the region.
A day earlier, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei reiterated Tehran’s opposition to the division of historical
Palestine.
“Any plan that would lead to the division of Palestine is
unacceptable,” he said. “Any plan that would create two states... would
be accepting a Zionist state in the land of Palestine.”
Ahmadinejad met
Sunday with Nabih Berri, Lebanon’s speaker of parliament and a Hezbollah ally,
who chaired the day’s conference proceedings. Also attending the meeting
were Mohammad Raad, head of Hezbollah’s ruling parliamentary bloc, and a
delegation from Berri’s Amal Party, Beirut’s
Daily Star newspaper
reported.
“You have established a resistance that raised hope after the
victories and achievements it has made,” Ahmadinejad said of Berri.
“The
region is going through developments that evoked worry and fears,” the Lebanese
speaker replied. “Lebanon is developing, though slowly, but it is not an island.
Therefore, it will be affected by what is happening in the region, especially
since the Israeli enemy is still occupying part of our land. Even if this
land is small, this means that sovereignty is incomplete.”
During the
conference Berri scolded Arab countries for boycotting the Syrian regime of
Bashar Assad to protest his sixmonth crackdown of a popular
uprising.
“Where is the official Arab boycott of Israel instead of Syria?
Why is Arab money spent on financing the protests in Syria instead of supporting
the Palestinian people to stay in their land? Why are Arab media efforts focused
on increasing tension in Syria instead of exposing the crimes of the Israeli
occupation and its violations against our Palestinian people?” he
asked.
Syria has traditionally been the greatest benefactor of Berri’s
largely Shi’ite party, which opposed the country’s 2005 military pullout from
Lebanon.
“Is it because Syria, like Iran, is part of the resistance and
rejection against Israeli aggressiveness and racism, and is demanding a just and
comprehensive peace according to UN resolutions and achievement of the
Palestinian people’s aspirations?” Berri said. “My answer is simply: Yes.”