Ahmadinejad: Israel will not last

Iranian president says 'Zionist regime' cannot last because it's built on 'aggression, lying, crime and wrongdoing'
AFP

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday predicted that Israel would not survive, as he lashed out at the US-hosted conference seeking to relaunch the Middle East peace process.

 

"It is impossible that the Zionist regime can last," the government mouthpiece website of state broadcasting quoted Ahmadinejad as saying in a cabinet meeting.

 

"Deterioration is in the nature of this regime as it has been built on aggression, lying, crime and wrongdoing," he added.

 

He said the meeting uniting Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Annapolis, Maryland has "failed already and was stillborn. It lacked the cornerstones of effective political work".

 

The Islamic republic - which has made non-recognition of Israel one of its main ideological themes - has been left isolated by the attendance at the meeting of Saudi Arabia and its chief regional ally Syria.

 

Ahmadinejad has repeatedly courted controversy by predicting Israel is doomed to disappear, most notoriously calling in 2005 for the Jewish state to be "wiped off the map".