British officials will demand an explanation from the Iranian charge d'affaires in London today over "sickening" comments made by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map".



Mr Ahmadinejad, who defends his country's "inalienable right" to nuclear power and has called for a global Islamic revolution, sparked an international furore last night after Iranian state television reported a speech he made at a conference in Tehran called "The World without Zionism."

Reverting to the vitriol of Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the Iranian revolution, Mr Ahmadinejad urged the destruction of Israel by Palestinian militants: "There is no doubt that the new wave in Palestine will soon wipe off this disgraceful blot from the face of the Islamic world," he said. "As the Imam (Khomeini) said, Israel must be wiped off the map."

Mr Ahmadinejad also warned fellow Islamic leaders against softening their stance against the "Zionist regime". Last month, Bahrain announced that it would resume trade with Israel.


"Anybody who recognises Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury. Anybody who recognizes the Zionist regime is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world," Mr Ahmadinejad is reported to have said.

Within hours of the speech a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in an Israeli market, killing five people in the deadliest attack in the country in three months.

Governments around the world condemned the President's speech and expressed fears for Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The Foreign Office called the comments "deeply disturbing and sickening".

"Saying Iran wants to wipe Israel from the map will only heighten concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions... We will be protesting to the Iranian charge d’affaires," said a spokesman. Canada, Spain and France are all expected to protest to Iranian representatives today.

Israel’s deputy ambassador to Britain, Zvi Rav-Ner, said that Mr Ahmadinejad's comments should be addressed by the UN and that Iran was threatening the peace of the world.

"From 1945, when the UN was established, no leader of a state has called for genocide and wiping off of another member state of the UN. That is unheard of," he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

"Iran, which has been involved in supporting terror worldwide, in Lebanon, in Argentina, in other places around the world, has been trying to develop the most dangerous capabilities, that is acquiring a nuclear bomb. Combined with its long range missiles, I think it is becoming a global problem, a real source of instability for the peace of the world," said Mr Rav-Ner.

In America, the Bush Administration said that Mr Ahmadinejad's speech displayed Iran's true intentions. "I think it reconfirms what we have been saying about the regime in Iran. It underscores the concerns we have about Iran’s nuclear intentions," said Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary.

Israel has been the declared enemy of Iran since the revolution in 1979 and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's Supreme Leader, routinely calls Israel a "cancerous tumour" that must be excised from the Middle East.

Nonetheless, Mr Ahmadinejad's remarks demonstrate a marked shift from the more conciliatory tone of Mohammed Khatami, the reformist President he succeeded in August.