Iran’s Parliament Speaker defends President’s speech

Iran Focus:

Tehran, Iran, Oct. 30 – Iran’s Majlis (Parliament) Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel defended on Sunday remarks by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and rejecting the Middle East peace process.

“This year, in the days leading to the Qods (Jerusalem) Day, the Zionists created a hysteria in the world media”, Haddad-Adel said, referring to widespread coverage of international condemnation of the Iranian president’s speech.

Haddad-Adel, whose daughter is married to the son of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told Majlis that the main reason behind the “uproar created by the Zionists” was to overshadow the Qods Day.

Every year, state-organised demonstrations are held across the country on the last Friday of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan to call for “the liberation of Palestine”.

This year’s demonstration in Tehran was attended by President Ahmadinejad and all the key figures in Iran’s theocratic regime.