[Iran's Foreign Minister Calls Israel 'Illegal Regime'] - [Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2009]

Mottaki was speaking at the World Economic Forum in Jordan.

He added that the future borders of a historical Palestinian state should be decided in a referendum by its "original" inhabitants.

Iran's president, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, said in October 2005 that "as the imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution] said, Israel must be wiped off the map." Ahmadinejad has also called the Holocaust massacre of millions of Jews during World War II a "myth."

(AFP, Reuters)

Iran's Foreign Minister Calls Israel 'Illegal Regime'

Foreign Minister Mottaki (left) with President Ahmadinejad (file photo) (epa)May 20, 2007 -- Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said on May 19 that although Israel is a regime with an "illegal basis," Iran is not "talking about eliminating any nation or any country."

Foreign Minister Mottaki (left) with President Ahmadinejad (file photo) (epa)
May 20, 2007 -- Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said on May 19 that although Israel is a regime with an "illegal basis," Iran is not "talking about eliminating any nation or any country."