Iran wants to destroy Jewish state, says Israel foreign minister
Mr Shalom, after a meeting with his French counterpart in Paris, said the international community must prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb.
Teheran says its nuclear programme is purely to make power.
“We know what the Iranians’ real intentions are,” Mr Shalom told reporters after meeting with Philippe Douste-Blazy.
“The Iranians are trying to develop a nuclear bomb in order to destroy the state of Israel.”
He made the comments a day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denounced Israel and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks “will wipe this stigma from the face of the Islamic world”.
Citing the words of the founder of Iran’s Islamic revolution, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Ahmadinejad said: “Israel must be wiped off the map.”
Mr Shalom said Iran has long made similar comments, adding, “the time has come for the whole international community to be united in order to stop the Iranians”.
He said a meeting next month of the International Atomic Energy Agency was crucial, because “there is a limited time before (Iran) will have full knowledge of how to develop a nuclear bomb.”
“It might be only six months from today,” he said.
European leaders condemned in the “strongest terms” the call by Mr Ahmadinejad.
However, Israeli calls for Iran to be expelled from the United Nations over the remarks were not immediately taken up by other nations.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said “a state which calls for the destruction of another people cannot be a member of the United Nations.”
The EU leaders gathered for an informal summit at Hampton Court said that his comments were “manifestly inconsistent” with a claim to membership of the international community.
They said in a statement: “Calls for violence, and for the destruction of any state are manifestly inconsistent with any claim to be a mature and responsible member of the international community.
“Such comments will cause concern about Iran’s role in the region and its future intention. The fact that these comments were made on the same day as a horrific attack on Israeli civilians should reinforce the lesson that incitement to violence, and the terrorism that it breeds, are despicable and unacceptable acts.”
The statement said the EU remained committed to a solution to the Arab-Israeli dispute based on the principles of two states living side by side in peace and security.
Dermot Ahern said the remarks would do nothing to improve relations in the Middle East.
“I was shocked and saddened at the reported statement by the President of Iran yesterday that Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth,” he said.
“My officials conveyed to the Iranian Embassy in Dublin the Government’s clear view that the remarks, as reported, are entirely unacceptable. They can only have a very negative effect in a troubled region, and they contribute nothing to relations between the European Union and Iran.”
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