US, EU condemn Iran?s remarks on Israel

Moscow: Iran sought on Friday to smooth the effects of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comment that Israel should be ?wiped off the map?, saying through its Moscow embassy that he did not mean to "speak in such sharp terms".

Ahmadinejad's remark, strongly condemned by the United States, Russia and the EU, has added fresh tension to Iran's relations with the West, already soured by a standoff over Tehran's nuclear programme.

"Mr Ahmadinejad did not have any intention to speak up in such sharp terms and enter into a conflict," the Iranian embassy in Moscow said in its first official reaction to the West's outrage.

"It's absolutely clear that, in his remarks, Mr Ahmadinejad, president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, underlined the key position of Iran, based on the necessity to hold free elections on the occupied territories."

Moscow is home to one of Iran's key embassies, and the Islamic Republic, which has never publicly acknowledged Israel's right to exist, has used it in the past to comment on broad foreign policy matters.

Russia, which sees Iran as a key ally in the Middle East, has positioned itself as a vital link between the Islamic Republic and the West, and has called for diplomacy and talks to settle disagreements.

Broad Diplomatic Offensive

Israel said on Friday it would call for an emergency session of the UN Security Council over Ahmadinejad's comment.

"We have decided to open a broad diplomatic offensive," Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said in an interview.

Israel had already said that Iran should be ejected from the United Nations over the comments.

"The sad fact about the statement of the President of Iran is that he was correctly articulating the policy of his regime which has given hands-on support to the most extreme terrorist elements in the Middle East who are opposed to peace and reconciliation," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.

"His words were bad enough but the fact that they articulate a policy that has been conducted by the regime in Tehran in the past years is the real problem."