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Security Council condemns anti-Israel words

Iranians rally, repeat president's call to 'wipe out' Israel

(CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council has condemned recent comments by Iran's president that Israel should be "wiped off the map" but did not say if the world body planned any action against Iran.

In a written statement, the council pointed out that all members of the United Nations "have undertaken to refrain from the threat or use of force against ... any state."

During a meeting Wednesday with protesting students at Iran's Interior Ministry, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad quoted the Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, saying that Israel "must be wiped out from the map of the world." (Full story)

His remarks were harshly criticized by leaders across the world, many of whom noted the uncertainty over Iran's nuclear ambitions. Tehran insists its nuclear program exists for peaceful purposes, but other countries, including the United States, have questioned its motives.

On Friday, Israel's U.N. ambassador, Dan Gillerman, told CNN that Israel was pleased the Security Council was addressing Ahmadinejad's comments.

"We're very happy that the Security Council has taken up the matter of that mad, dangerous and extreme statement we heard from the president of Iran," Gillerman said.

"I certainly think that a country whose head of state calls for the destruction of any other member state of the United Nations does not deserve a seat in this very civilized organization."

He said the condemnation of the statement is an indication of the "grave concern" that the international community has about the head of state of one member U.N. state calling for the 'destruction' and 'wiping out' of another member state.

"It was just 60 years ago that another leader, democratically elected in a European country, called [for] the destruction of a whole people," he said, referring to Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler.

"The fact that 60 years later these voices are coming from Tehran [is] very ominous."

Gillerman said that Iran has emerged not only as a threat to Israel but as a "global threat."

He said Iran is a "terrorist-supporting country, and the statements made by its president illustrate in the clearest way, and without any doubt, what this regime is all about."

Iranians rally

Meanwhile, thousands of Iranians staged anti-Israel protests across the country Friday and repeated calls by their ultraconservative president demanding the Jewish state's destruction.

Demonstrators held banners with anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian slogans. One banner read "Death to Israel, death to America," The Associated Press reported.

Ahmadinejad -- marching with the protesters -- signaled he stood by his remarks, even as Iranian officials tried to defuse the issue.

"My word is the same as that of (the) Iranian nation," he told the official IRNA news agency.

"They are free to say but their words lack any credit," he said, when asked about global reaction to his comments.

The state-organized rallies were first held in 1979 after Shiite Muslim clerics took power in Iran.

Moscow enters fray

Ahmadinejad's comments drew swift and harsh reaction from governments in Europe and North America, as well as from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. (Full story)

But on Friday, Iran's Moscow embassy -- often used by Tehran to issue statements on foreign policy -- said Ahmadinejad did not mean to "speak up in such sharp terms."

The embassy said Ahmadinejad "did not have any intention to speak up in such sharp terms and enter into a conflict."

"It's absolutely clear that, in his remarks, Mr. Ahmadinejad, president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, underlined the key position of Iran, based on the necessity to hold free elections on the occupied territories," Reuters quoted the embassy statement as saying.

Some Iranian officials are also attempting to smooth over tensions caused by Ahmadinejad's comments.

In a Friday prayer speech, the former speaker of the Iranian parliament, Aliakbar Nateq-Noori, said that what Ahmadinejad meant was that free and fair elections should be held in Palestine, with the participation of all Palestinians, including refugees, and that whoever wins the election should take over the government.

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