Peres says Iran should be expelled from UN

Iran should be expelled from the United Nations after its president said Israel should be “wiped off the map", Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres said today.

Peres, a Nobel peace laureate, said there was no place in the world body for a country that called for the elimination of a fellow member state.

“I don’t know if this has a chance, but this has to be said by us,” Peres told Israel Radio.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Israel protested against Iran’s comments yesterday at the United Nations, but had not decided whether to officially ask for Iran’s removal.

The comments made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a student gathering in Tehran drew widespread international condemnation.