Wednesday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 10.25.2005:

Iranian President: Israel Should be 'Wiped Off the Map'

Agence France Presse:

Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday openly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and lashed out at Muslim nations who recognise the Jewish state.

"The establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world," the president told a conference in Tehran entitled: 'The World without Zionism'.

"The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of a war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land," he thundered in a fiery speech on what he called an "historic war between the oppressor and the world of Islam".

"As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map," said Ahmadinejad, referring to Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

His comments were the first time in years that such a high-ranking Iranian official has called for Israel's eradication, even though such slogans are still regularly used at regime rallies. READ MORE

Here are a few other news items you may have missed.

• Iran Press News reported that Ahmadinejad mocked the West saying: the West is simply opposed to the nature of Islamic order; therefore when the nuclear issue is resolved, westerners will take issue with our human rights problems and when that's resolved, they will probably pick on us for animal rights abuse.... When the centrifuges are started up again, things will transform.
• Sky News reported that Tony Blair has warned Iran to stop supporting terrorism and abide by the rules over nuclear weapons.
• Iran Press News reported that several of the employees, professors and students of Azad University of Qazvin were arrested; they were charged with "establishing a network of corruption in a university."
• Iran Press News reported that the nurses in private wards are living under the poverty line.
• Iran Press News reported that the Islamic Judiciary has summoned the families of the Student political prisoners in order to "complete the investigations and present information on the Ministry of Intelligence and Security's prisoner list."
• Iran Press News reported that there is no news from political prisoner, Behrooz Javid-Tehrani, detained at Rejaiishahr prison.
• Iran Press News reported that while political prisoners of Rejaiishahr prison, visited with their families. The families of these prisoners called it "staged" and a ruse to prevent the two prisoners from taking their deserved furloughs.
• Iran Press News reported that Seyed Ahmad Seyed Seraajee Tabrizi blogger was sentenced to 1 year in prison by the appeals court.
• Iran Press News reported that 15 million people, equal to 21% of the population in Iran, suffer from some form of mental illness, mainly depression.
• Michael Rubin, The Middle East Forum argued that nowhere has engagement failed so starkly as with Europe's dialogue with Iran.
• Golnaz Esfandiari, Radio Free Europe examined Iran's struggle to influence the region.
• Sherrie Gossett and Monisha Bansal, CNSNews reported that at a Washington DC news conference conducted by self-described Iranian dissidents descended into chaos as audience members and two journalists accused the speakers of spreading disinformation and being agents of Iranian intelligence.
• Scotsman reported that a failure to halt Iran's ambitions to develop a nuclear bomb could lead other countries in the region to acquire nuclear weapons.
• Michael Adler, Agence France Presse reported that the United States and the European Union will hold off taking Iran before the UN Security Council.
• And finally, George Melloan, The Wall Street Journal reported on the ramifications of the UN report on the murder of Lebanese leader Rafik Hariri for Syria. PLUS we have found a copy of the restored unexpurgated version of the UN report.