Canada blasts Iran for seeking Israeli destruction

Yahoo News:

Reuters Wed Oct 26, 5:19 PM ET

Canada strongly condemned Iran's president on Wednesday for urging that Israel be "wiped off the map," saying the comments were particularly worrying because of Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his remarks on Wednesday, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"This is the 21st century. We cannot tolerate comments of such hatred, such anti-Semitism, such intolerance," Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew told reporters. "And these comments are all the more troubling (given) that we know of Iran's nuclear ambitions. So I think it is very important that all countries do stand up together to make sure that we do not accept that Iran continues a nuclear program."

Iran says it needs nuclear energy to meet booming demand and dismisses the idea it will make atomic weapons.

Canada, which has had bad relations with Tehran, plans to put forward a resolution at the United Nations for the third year in a row accusing Iran of human rights violations.