TEHRAN/BRUSSELS (AFP-EJP)---Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned on Wednesday that Muslims would uproot Israel at the first opportunity, saying the Jewish state was "dying," a local news agency reported.
“They (Israel) must know that the nations of the region hate this counterfeit regime," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency in a speech in the northern province of Golestan.
"And if there is the slightest chance, they will uproot this counterfeit regime," said Ahmadinejad.
"They must know that the Zionist regime is on the verge of dying...
throwing a birthday party for this regime is like having a birthday party for a dead person," he added.
Since becoming president in 2005, Ahmadinejad has repeatedly provoked international outrage by predicting Israel is doomed to disappear.
He has also caused controversy by playing down the scale of the Holocaust.
EU condemnation
The European Union presidency condemned "in the strongest possible terms" Ahmadinejad’s anti-Israeli remarks.
Last week, he called the State of Israel "a stinking corpse".
The Iranian president’s comments, delivered Thursday, "are unacceptable, damaging and uncivilised," the EU’s Slovenian presidency said in a statement.
The EU presidency "condemns in the strongest possible terms the recent statements made by the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran... Such statements are improper for representatives of the Iranian authorities," the statement said.
The EU's rotating presidency, held by Slovenia for the first half of this year, called on the Iranian leader "to stop the hostile rhetoric and refrain from all threats towards other states and nations, members of the international community".
