Iran chief reaffirms anti-Israeli stance

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's president on Friday stood by his earlier call to "wipe Israel off the map," while other Iranian officials played it down and some commentators here suggested it was a sign of what they consider his amateurism.

The president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was cheered by thousands of supporters during an anti-Israel rally in Tehran on Friday. "My words are the Iranian nation's words," he said of his statement that was widely condemned around the world, the Iranian news agency, IRNA, quoted him as saying. "Westerners are free to comment, but their reaction is invalid."

State media reported that hundreds of thousands took part in the annual demonstrations across the country. Protesters chanted "death to America" and "death to Israel" and set fire to American and Israeli flags.

The secretary of the national security council, Ali Larijani, who has headed Iran's nuclear talks since August, said at the demonstration that the media had misused the president's comments.

"We still have the same position and believe the Palestinian people must decide for their future," the Iranian Student News Agency quoted him as saying.

Ahmad Nateq Nouri, a senior conservative cleric and member of the Expediency Council who spoke at the ceremony, also played down the president's comments, saying, "What the president meant was that we favor a fair and long-lasting peace in Palestine," the Iranian Student News Agency reported.

The Iranian Embassy in Moscow issued a statement that minimized Ahmadinejad's comments, saying "he did not have any intention to speak up in such sharp terms and enter into a conflict."

The new president is facing a storm of criticism of his foreign policy statements from overseas and from inside Iran.

"It is becoming more and more clear among both reformist politicians and some of his own supporters that Ahmadinejad has neither the political experience nor the knowledge to run the country," said Issa Saharkhiz, a reformist politician and journalist in Tehran. "It seems that time has frozen for him and he is repeating the same slogans when he was a student now in the position of president."

Most politicians and religious leaders who have been vocal in the past have maintained a public silence over his performance. But in private many express worry.