Tehran - A majority of the members of the Iranian parliament
demanded Wednesday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad make his deputy
resign after making pro-Israeli comments, the website of the state
television network IRIB reported.
In a letter to Ahmadinejad, 200 of the 290 deputies condemned the
recent remarks by Vice President Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei as 'highly
regrettable' and asked the president to condemn his comments.
The vice president, who is in charge of cultural heritage and
tourism, said Iran should be friends with both the Israeli and
American people despite having political problems with the two
countries. He emphasized this position again Monday.
Rahim-Mashaei was summoned Wednesday by parliament for a special
session to reply to 'questions, ambiguities and criticism' from the
deputies over his comments.
At the same time, Islamist students gathered in front of the
cultural heritage organization and shouted slogans against the vice
president, such as 'Shame on you,' 'Death to concession makers' and
'Resignation, resignation.'
Reacting to Rahim-Mashaei's comments, parliament speaker Ali
Larijani said Iran was no friend of the Israelis.
Iran does not acknowledge Israel as a sovereign state, and,
therefore, the deputies said, the Israeli people should not be
acknowledged either but rather considered as living in the
territories originally belonging to Palestinians.
Iran has called for a referendum in what it calls the 'occupied
territories' to clarify the future political situation there. Tehran
said Jews should live besides Moslems but in a Palestinian, not
Israeli land.
Ahmadinejad, who had has earned himself international notoriety
for his frequent verbal assaults on Israel, has voiced hopes for the
eradication of Israel, demanding its relocation to Europe or Alaska,
and also has expressed doubts about whether the Holocaust took place.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story