AFP: Zionists are the “true incarnation of Satan,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in his latest verbal assault on Tehran’s archfoe Israel, the state-run IRNA news agency reported Thursday. TEHRAN, March 1, 2007 (AFP) – Zionists are the “true incarnation of Satan,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in his latest verbal assault on Tehran’s archfoe Israel, the state-run IRNA news agency reported Thursday.
“Zionists are the true incarnation of Satan,” Ahmadinejad told a meeting of Sudanese Islamic scholars late on Wednesday on the first day of his state visit to Sudan.
“The Zionist regime was created by the British, brought up by the Americans and commits crimes in the region with their support,” he charged.
Ahmadinejad has earned notoriety for his repeated verbal attacks on the Jewish state, which he has said should be “wiped from the map” and is doomed to disappear.
He also provoked outrage by describing the Holocaust as a “myth” and holding a conference of “revisionist” historians in Tehran late last year that cast doubt on the Nazi mass slaughter of Jews in World War II.
“The Zionist regime is the symbol of hedonism and the incarnation of the soul of the oppressive powers,” added Ahmadinejad, whose comments were greeted by shouts of “God is Great!” by the scholars, IRNA said.
Ahmadinejad’s anti-American comments fall on receptive ears in Sudan, which like Tehran is a leading foe of the United States and accused by Washington of sponsoring terror. Both deny the charges.
“The people of the world have woken up and detest the oppressive powers,” Ahmadinejad added.
“Numerous Western powers who claim to defend democracy and human rights close their eyes to the Zionist crimes,” he added.
Iran has no diplomatic relations with Israel, whose existence it does not recognise. It supports Palestinian Islamist groups and has helped the Hamas-led Palestinian government with millions of dollars of financial aid.
The Islamic republic’s long-stated proposal for the Middle East conflict has been to promote a return of all Palestinian refugees to their former homes and then organising a referendum over the “future of Palestine”.
The Iranian government has also vehemently denied charges of anti-Semitism, pointing to the existence of a 20,000-strong Jewish community in Iran, the largest in the Middle East outside Israel.
Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric has not been repeated by all high-ranking Iranian officials.
Ali Akbar Velayati, a foreign affairs adviser to the supreme leader, described the Holocaust in a newspaper interview last month as a “reality” that should not be used to justify repression of the Palestinians.
