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Last update - 00:58 01/01/2009
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 00:36  |  Iranian-american 01/01/08
      2.   Iran`s threats to Israel should be focus of Military Operations . 00:21  |  Joseph.E 01/01/08
      3.   The Arabs Occupation Problem threatens Israel 00:26  |  Joseph.E 01/01/08
      4.   Israel`s undiplomatic diplomat! LOL 00:40  |  Michael 01/01/08
      5.   Where`s The Goddamned Border? 00:04  |  Jeff Northridge 01/01/08
      6.   threats! 00:30  |  Rigma 01/01/08
      7.   10 years ago it was Arafat, 6 years ago it was Iraq...... 00:37  |  Swiss (Dino) 01/01/08
      8.   Settlements are the biggest blessing for Israel 00:42  |  Vitaly 01/01/08
      9.   Twenty-Two States Indeed 00:43  |  Yanatan 01/01/08
      10.   We know West Bank issue involves major concession, but Iranian 00:19  |  Smadar 01/01/08
      11.   Iran is not even in the Middle East 00:32  |  ID 01/01/08
      12.   Amazing 00:37  |  Dave Duncan 01/01/08
      13.   2002 Saudia Machination Is about War Not Peace 00:42  |  Joseph.E 01/01/08
      14.   # 4 Michael 00:57  |  Joseph.E 01/01/08
      15.   #1 Iranian-American 00:10  |  Moshe 01/01/08
      16.   DID SOMEONE HEAR SOMETHING FROM THE SEC. OF STATE OF THE USA? 00:30  |  dp 01/01/08
      17.   Lies Lies and More Lies 00:10  |  GZLives 01/01/08
      18.   # 8 vitaly 00:20  |  Axel 01/01/08
      19.   # 15 Moshe @ Rockville-Maryland USA 00:22  |  Joseph.E 01/01/08
      20.   # 9 yanatan 00:24  |  Axel 01/01/08
      21.   Daniyal chapter 11! 00:39  |  Rigma 01/01/08
      22.   # 20 Axel 00:07  |  Joseph.E 01/01/08
      23.   #5 Where is the Gaddamned occupation, Jeff? 00:26  |  Johnboy 01/01/08
      24.   Well, that`s zionism for you... 00:34  |  Johnboy 01/01/08
      25.   Road Map Perfidy Threat To Israel Democracy & Territorial Integri 00:54  |  Joseph.E 01/01/08
      26.   The Issue of Settlements Are Nobody` Business 00:18  |  Joseph.E 01/01/08
      27.   #26 You are wrong Joseph E. and also arrogant 00:40  |  Mark B. 01/01/08
      28.   Moshe... Yes. It is not EASY 00:50  |  Iranian-american 01/01/08
      29.   HOT AIR 00:21  |  Mark of Lewiston 01/01/08
      30.   #26 Joseph E goes wrong in the first line... 00:11  |  Johnboy 01/01/08
      31.   So Russia destroying Chechenya and Georgia is irrelevant 00:34  |  Alain 01/01/08
      32.   Johnboy -- Learn your history 00:44  |  Slibovitz 01/01/08
      33.   Settlements are not the biggest problem 00:48  |  Slibovitz 01/01/08
      34.   Joseph E. 14 00:25  |  Michael 01/01/08
      35.   #22 Joseph.E re 20 Axel the arrogant from Germany 00:25  |  MR 01/01/08
      36.   #27 Johnboy the oiberhuchem from Sydney 00:31  |  MR 01/01/08
      37.   to Dino (Swiss) #7: 00:08  |  Daniel 01/01/08
      38.   Michael 00:58  |  Shlomi 01/01/08
      39.   Swiss Dino 00:04  |  Aaron 01/01/08
      40.   Pro Israelis a shame 00:14  |  Dav 01/01/08
      41.   # 17 GZL 00:23  |  Axel 01/01/08
      42.   # 29 slibovitz 00:29  |  Axel 01/01/08
      43.   IRANIAN American.It was the German FM,NOT Israel saying it 00:54  |  PETER SM 01/01/08
      44.   The Israeli Ambassador to 00:05  |  Graham Gooch 01/01/08
      45.   Dino (Swiss) 7# 00:48  |  Daniel 01/01/08
      46.   JOHNNBOY well that`s apologists for you. 00:14  |  PETER SM 01/01/08
      47.   condemnations are not enough 00:45  |  scallywag 01/01/08
      48.   IRANIAN AMERICAN Mocking the Holocaust and the Islamist cartoons 00:55  |  PETER SM 01/01/08
      49.   swiss (dino) 00:11  |  scallywag 01/01/08
      50.   # 37 Aaron 00:20  |  Swiss (Dino) 01/01/08
      51.   Shlomi 38 Rudeness is no substitute for effectiveness. 00:06  |  Michael 01/01/08
      52.   # 45 Daniel (2nd try) 00:14  |  Swiss (Dino) 01/01/08
      53.   # 49 scallywag 00:19  |  Swiss (Dino) 01/01/08
      54.   #40 00:26  |  JR 01/01/08
      55.   swiss (dino) - dovish israel 00:46  |  scallywag 01/01/08
      56.   #54 JR 00:34  |  Dav 01/01/08
      57.   DAV not everyone swallows your ever changeing history-shame 00:48  |  PETER SM 01/01/08
      58.   # 35 mr 00:06  |  Axel 01/01/08
      59.   Dav 55- excellent reference 00:11  |  ChanahS 01/01/08
      60.   #1 iranian-American....you are right 00:15  |  Lynn 01/01/08
      61.   #7 Neutered observer 00:24  |  Joy 01/01/08
      62.   #11 ID...she can only suggest 00:27  |  Lynn 01/01/08
      63.   #24 johnboy, Israel and the us make a great team 00:45  |  duncan 01/01/08
      64.   you are the fool Jeff 00:45  |  Labhras 01/01/08
      65.   Dealing with Iran 00:25  |  Adam 01/01/08
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