Ahmadinejad: Anti-Israeli rallies for removing "infectious tumour"

Aug 22, 2011, 12:41 GMT

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on all world Muslims to hold annual anti-Israeli rallies to demonstrate their willingness to remove the Jewish state, which he referred to as an 'infectious tumour,' ISNA news agency reported Monday.

Iran marks the last Friday - this year on August 26 - of the fasting month of Ramadan as Qods (Jerusalem) Day, during which state-organized anti-Israeli rallies are held nationwide.

'The Iranian and Muslim nations worldwide should attend Qods rallies and show their willingness to detach and dispose of this infectious tumour and this regime full of rascality,' Ahmadinejad said at the end of a cabinet session on Sunday night.

'The Qods day is the main key and ultimate confrontation for solving historic issues and people's deliverance from evil though disappearance of the Zionist regime (Israel),' Ahmadinejad added.

The Iranian president caused international condemnation in 2005 when he said that Israel should be eliminated from the Middle East map and transferred to Europe or North America.

International isolation of the Islamic republic escalated after Ahmadinejad held a Holocaust conference in 2006 in which he questioned that the killing of 6 million Jews in Europe during World War II had ever happened.

Iran does not recognize Israel's sovereignty and said the only pragmatic option to resolve the Middle East conflict would be a referendum for all Palestinians, including the millions of refugees, to determine their fate.

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