Thursday, 11 May 2006
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Thursday that without Western support the Israeli regime would fall.
The Iranian president, who is currently in Indonesia to attend the fifth summit of the D-8 (Group of 8 developing Muslim countries) and to hold talks with senior Indonesian officials, made the remark while addressing Indonesian scholars, elites and university professors.
"No government that practices oppression can remain in power for so long," he said, adding that it "is doomed to crumble." The nature of the Zionist regime is that it thrives on threats and intimidation, the president said.
Referring to the concern expressed by western countries over his remarks about Israel, he said he was merely stating the truth, and urged countries who were threatened by his remarks to end their support for the cruel regime and see what would happen.
"Today, the occupied lands under the Zionist regime have been turned into a large prison and military camp. Liberalism has surrendered itself to the Zionist regime," he said.
"In the past, we witnessed occupation of one country by another but today we see a country rise on territory belonging to other people," President Ahmadinejad said.
Westerners, using their alleged sympathy for the killing of over six million Jews in the course of World War II, established Israel on land belonging to the Palestinians and support its regime, he continued.
"We value the life and dignity of human beings and condemn any massacre of innocent people," he said, and asked why, if indeed the Holocaust is a fact of history, why Israel was established in the East and in Palestinian lands when Jews were killed in Europe.
If the Holocaust indeed happened, then those who committed the crime should compensate for it, the Iranian president suggested.
Referring to the expulsion of Jews from Europe as a reason behind the establishment of Israel by the Westerners, he said: "They (Westerners), particularly the British, with their anti-Jewish attitude forced groups of Jews to migrate."
The presence of Israel in the region which threatens the countries therein is another reason behind the establishment of Israel by the West, he said.
"Houses of defenseless people in Palestine are destroyed and thousands of oppressed people are killed. Millions of people become homeless and some people are assassinated with prior notice. But none of these bothers the West," the Iranian president pointed out.
When elections were held in the Palestinian territories and the people overwhelmingly elected leaders of their choice, western liberalism refused to recognize it and ordered the newly elected officials to recognize the old regime, the president complained.
"We proposed a transparent solution, that is, that if the West is committed to democratic principles Palestinian decisions should be respected. We asked them to let all Palestinians -- Muslims, Christians and Jews -- elect a popular government through a referendum."
Regretting the fact that supporters of democracy would never accept such a proposal, the president said that "only by accepting this suggestion will respect for them be restored and the way opened for cooperation and friendship."
The people of the world abhor threats and tensions and want peace and justice to prevail, he concluded.
IRNA Thursday May 11, 2006
