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Last update - 23:20 27/09/2008
German FM: Ahmadinejad's UN speech 'blatant anti-Semitism'
By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies
Tags: Iran, Rice, Gabriela Shalev 

Germany's foreign minister on Friday blasted the Iranian president's speech at the United Nations General Assembly as "blatant anti-Semitism" and urged the 192 U.N. member states to join in condemning it.

On Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad railed against "Zionist murderers" and dwelled on what he described as Zionist control of international finance.

"The statements of the Iranian president about Israel are irresponsible and unacceptable," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the General Assembly.
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"The blatant anti-Semitism of his speech this year was intolerable and demands our mutual condemnation," he said.

The Iranian president has previously said that Israel should be wiped off the map.

President Shimon Peres said on Tuesday Ahmadinejad's comments echoed the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," an anti-Semitic tract from the early 1900s that purported to show a Jewish and Masonic plot to take over the world. It has since been exposed as a hoax.

After World War Two, Germany has made a point of condemning anti-Semitism because of its own Nazi past.

Earlier on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a UN Security Council meeting on Israel and the Palestinians that the council should take up the issue of Ahmadinejad's comments about Israel.

Rice made the announcement at a Security Council discussion on Israel's expansion of settlements in the West Bank, called by the Arab League. Rice stressed that the Arab world has an obligation to advance peace in the Middle East.

"If the council feels it needs to meet again on threats to peace in the Middle East, it ought to focus on the Iranian president's remarks," she said, referring to the Arab League's repeated assertion that Israel's expansion of settlements in the West Bank was one of the main obstacles standing in the way of peace.

"The United States of America will be asking that the council convene again to take up the matter of one member of the United Nations calling for the destruction of another member of the United Nations in a way that simply should not be allowed," Rice said.

The secretary of state went on to say that at the top of the list of threats to international peace and security was Ahmadinejad's assertion that Israel "should be wiped from the face of the map, should be destroyed and should not exist."

"That should not be allowed," Rice said.

Ahmadinejad caused widespread outrage for saying in 2005 that the state of Israel should be wiped off the map.

Israeli envoy: Security Council's debates are irrelevant, pointless

Also present at the debate was Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, who said "The UN Security Council's debates are irrelevant and pointless."

Shalev said that the real issues were debated "just two floors below by President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas."

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told the same council meeting that "we will all have seen and must deplore the egregiously offensive comments of President Ahmadinejad."


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      1.   WRONG. Nice try but this is no longer working 20:36  |  Iranian-american 26/09/08
      2.   Iran`s threats to Israel should be focus of Military Operations . 21:21  |  Joseph.E 26/09/08
      3.   The Arabs Occupation Problem threatens Israel 21:26  |  Joseph.E 26/09/08
      4.   Israel`s undiplomatic diplomat! LOL 21:40  |  Michael 26/09/08
      5.   Where`s The Goddamned Border? 22:04  |  Jeff Northridge 26/09/08
      6.   threats! 22:30  |  Rigma 26/09/08
      7.   10 years ago it was Arafat, 6 years ago it was Iraq...... 22:37  |  Swiss (Dino) 26/09/08
      8.   Settlements are the biggest blessing for Israel 22:42  |  Vitaly 26/09/08
      9.   Twenty-Two States Indeed 22:43  |  Yanatan 26/09/08
      10.   We know West Bank issue involves major concession, but Iranian 23:19  |  Smadar 26/09/08
      11.   Iran is not even in the Middle East 23:32  |  ID 26/09/08
      12.   Amazing 23:37  |  Dave Duncan 26/09/08
      13.   2002 Saudia Machination Is about War Not Peace 23:42  |  Joseph.E 26/09/08
      14.   # 4 Michael 23:57  |  Joseph.E 26/09/08
      15.   #1 Iranian-American 00:10  |  Moshe 27/09/08
      16.   DID SOMEONE HEAR SOMETHING FROM THE SEC. OF STATE OF THE USA? 00:30  |  dp 27/09/08
      17.   Lies Lies and More Lies 01:10  |  GZLives 27/09/08
      18.   # 8 vitaly 01:20  |  Axel 27/09/08
      19.   # 15 Moshe @ Rockville-Maryland USA 01:22  |  Joseph.E 27/09/08
      20.   # 9 yanatan 01:24  |  Axel 27/09/08
      21.   Daniyal chapter 11! 01:39  |  Rigma 27/09/08
      22.   # 20 Axel 02:07  |  Joseph.E 27/09/08
      23.   #5 Where is the Gaddamned occupation, Jeff? 02:26  |  Johnboy 27/09/08
      24.   Well, that`s zionism for you... 04:34  |  Johnboy 27/09/08
      25.   Road Map Perfidy Threat To Israel Democracy & Territorial Integri 05:54  |  Joseph.E 27/09/08
      26.   The Issue of Settlements Are Nobody` Business 06:18  |  Joseph.E 27/09/08
      27.   #26 You are wrong Joseph E. and also arrogant 07:40  |  Mark B. 27/09/08
      28.   Moshe... Yes. It is not EASY 07:50  |  Iranian-american 27/09/08
      29.   HOT AIR 09:21  |  Mark of Lewiston 27/09/08
      30.   #26 Joseph E goes wrong in the first line... 10:11  |  Johnboy 27/09/08
      31.   So Russia destroying Chechenya and Georgia is irrelevant 11:34  |  Alain 27/09/08
      32.   Johnboy -- Learn your history 11:44  |  Slibovitz 27/09/08
      33.   Settlements are not the biggest problem 11:48  |  Slibovitz 27/09/08
      34.   Joseph E. 14 12:25  |  Michael 27/09/08
      35.   #22 Joseph.E re 20 Axel the arrogant from Germany 12:25  |  MR 27/09/08
      36.   #27 Johnboy the oiberhuchem from Sydney 12:31  |  MR 27/09/08
      37.   to Dino (Swiss) #7: 13:08  |  Daniel 27/09/08
      38.   Michael 13:58  |  Shlomi 27/09/08
      39.   Swiss Dino 14:04  |  Aaron 27/09/08
      40.   Pro Israelis a shame 14:14  |  Dav 27/09/08
      41.   # 17 GZL 14:23  |  Axel 27/09/08
      42.   # 29 slibovitz 14:29  |  Axel 27/09/08
      43.   IRANIAN American.It was the German FM,NOT Israel saying it 14:54  |  PETER SM 27/09/08
      44.   The Israeli Ambassador to 15:05  |  Graham Gooch 27/09/08
      45.   Dino (Swiss) 7# 15:48  |  Daniel 27/09/08
      46.   JOHNNBOY well that`s apologists for you. 16:14  |  PETER SM 27/09/08
      47.   condemnations are not enough 16:45  |  scallywag 27/09/08
      48.   IRANIAN AMERICAN Mocking the Holocaust and the Islamist cartoons 16:55  |  PETER SM 27/09/08
      49.   swiss (dino) 17:11  |  scallywag 27/09/08
      50.   # 37 Aaron 17:20  |  Swiss (Dino) 27/09/08
      51.   Shlomi 38 Rudeness is no substitute for effectiveness. 19:06  |  Michael 27/09/08
      52.   # 45 Daniel (2nd try) 19:14  |  Swiss (Dino) 27/09/08
      53.   # 49 scallywag 19:19  |  Swiss (Dino) 27/09/08
      54.   #40 19:26  |  JR 27/09/08
      55.   swiss (dino) - dovish israel 19:46  |  scallywag 27/09/08
      56.   #54 JR 21:34  |  Dav 27/09/08
      57.   DAV not everyone swallows your ever changeing history-shame 23:48  |  PETER SM 27/09/08
      58.   # 35 mr 00:06  |  Axel 28/09/08
      59.   Dav 55- excellent reference 00:11  |  ChanahS 28/09/08
      60.   #1 iranian-American....you are right 00:15  |  Lynn 28/09/08
      61.   #7 Neutered observer 00:24  |  Joy 28/09/08
      62.   #11 ID...she can only suggest 00:27  |  Lynn 28/09/08
      63.   #24 johnboy, Israel and the us make a great team