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Iranian president: Israel will one day vanish

Updated: 11/May/2006 16:03

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ramped up his rhetoric against the West Thursday, warning that Israel will "one day vanish" as he shrugged off the threat of war and sanctions over Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

In speeches to university students Jakarta, capital of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, Ahmadinejad also accused the West of peddling lies and oppression.

"This regime one day will vanish," the hardline leader said of Israel.

"We believe that a government such as this one will not last long because it is built on tyranny and tyranny will not last long," he said.

The Iranian president declared last October that the Jewish state should be "wiped off the map". In April he said that Israel "cannot survive" and that migrants to the Jewish state should go back to where they came from.

New Holocaust denial

Ahmadinejad, who has already dismissed the Holocaust as a "myth", again questioned its veracity.

"Is it logical if (after) the annihilation of Jews by the West, the territory belonging to the Palestine people is taken and occupied for the building of a new nation and its people?" he asked the students.

"Is it logical to give compensation in the Middle East for an incident that occurred in Europe, if this incident is indeed true... by murdering thousands of local Palestinians and making millions of Palestinian refugees?"

Ahmadinejad, who is on a five-day visit to Indonesia, earlier told Metro TV in an interview that any military action against Iran would hurt the nations launching hostilities more than Tehran.

Military action

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The United States has refused to exclude possible military action against Iran over its nuclear enrichment activities, which Tehran insists is peaceful but Western nations fear may be a cover for developing an atomic bomb.

"First of all, actually, the idea of going to war is a joke, it's like a joke. Why should there be a war?" the firebrand leader said.

"This is just propaganda and psychological warfare against our country. We also possess the technical and other capabilities to defend our interests," he warned.

"They do know that any mistreatment of the Iranian people will actually cause more losses to them than for us. They need us more than we do actually need them. This is just rhetoric."

Ahmadinejad also said that Iranians would rise to the challenge of sanctions if they were imposed.

"Many of our scientists and experts will be more than happy to hear that we are put under sanctions by the West because this will motivate a great leap in our industrial and economic progress," he said.

The United States has been unable to win support for sanctions against Iran, and on Wednesday gave its European allies "a couple of weeks" to draft a fresh approach to persuade Tehran to drop its disputed nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad reiterated that Iran's program was not for military purposes, saying "we are after peace and tranquility" and Tehran was "ready to speak with everybody, to engage in dialogue with everybody."

"But if somebody points arms... at your face and tells you, okay, speak out, then will you do that?"

Day in history

1945: Germany

The Nuremberg Trials begin. Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals of World War II start at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.