Brussels - 10 November, 2005 – "The EU presidency and the European Commission deserves much credit for their clear and firm rebuff of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent remark on “sweeping Israel off the map”. This is completely unacceptable behavior of a member state of the United Nations and a major trade partner of the European Union", European Coalition for Israel executive director Rijk van Dam said on Wednesday in the Hague where he met with Israeli Ambassador Mr Margalit.

"For months we have been alerting EU-officials and Members of the European Parliament in Brussels on the inflammatory language coming out of Teheran and we are pleased that the world community is finally waking up and taking action, Van Dam said.

UK prime minister Tony Blair has lead European leaders in fiercely condemning the Iranian president’s call for “sweeping Israel off the map” while even Russia signaling that it is set to back the EU in referring Teheran to the UN security council. Mr Blair said that he was “revolted” by the comments made by the Iranian president.

"I have never come across a situation of the president of a country saying that they want to wipe out – not that they have a problem with an issue, but want to wipe out – another country”, the British leader said.

"This is unacceptable and their attitude towards Israel is unacceptable, their attitude towards terrorism, their attitude on the nuclear weapons issues isn’t acceptable”, he added.

Also other member governments of the European Union have come out in support of of the existence of Israel.
"The Iranian president is taking the risk of his country being made an outlaw state”, said French president Jacques Chirac in Paris.

European Commission president Jose Marie Barroso has condemned the Iranian statement saying that “we should respect the borders and integrity of Israel and let Israel live in peace with its neighbours.”

In Rome a spontaneous pro-Israel demonstration took place outside the Iranian Embassy where up to 20 000 people had gathered to express their opposition towards the Iranian president. Many leading politicians attended the demonstration which had the public endorsement of the Italian government.

The European Coalition for Israel has sent a private letter to the British prime minister expressing its appreciation over the fact that the EU presidency is speaking out against the Iranian hostility towards Israel. In the letter van Dam states that “EU-relations with Iran needs to be closely monitored in order to safeguard peace and security in the Middle East.”
"If this is the language of a nation which seeks to develop nuclear capabilities what future is there then for the Jewish homeland in the region? This recent statement only proves the true nature of the Iranian regime and should lead to further measures to put an end to the Iranian nuclear program. It should also open up a debate on whether the present government in Teheran is really suitable for UN memberhip” Van Dam concluded.