Why did Irans newly elected president demand that “Israel should be wiped off the map”?
Last week’s comments by Iran’s newly elected president, Mahmood Ahmadinejad, that “Israel should be wiped off the map” were no more than a repetition of Iran’s long-standing rhetoric toward the Jewish state enunciated by the late ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. However, as most Iranians know full well, such comments, repeated regularly at state-organised demonstrations in Tehran and other Iranian cities, are just empty threats. As one commentator reminded us last week, many Arab heads of state, some close to US, make similar statements for internal consumption in Arabic, yet their comments are not picked up by western news agencies and repeated on every news bulletin – Iran’s position on Israel is no different to that of such Arab states. The rhetoric of the Iranian president should not be mistaken for foreign policy, as the official statement by Iran’s ministry of foreign affairs on Sunday October 30 clarified: “The Islamic Republic of Iran is committed to its engagements based on the UN
