London: Britain's Foreign Office said it planned to protest the sickening comments made by the president of Iran calling for Israel to be wiped off the map.
Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said during a speech to students on Wednesday that a new wave of Palestinian attacks would destroy the Jewish state.
A British Foreign Office spokesman said the deadly suicide bombing which killed at least five people in Israel yesterday illustrated the horrible reality of the violence being praised by Ahmadinejad.
In a swipe at some Arab states, Ahmadinejad also denounced attempts to recognise Israel or normalise relations with it.
"There is no doubt that the new wave of attacks in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world," Ahmadinejad told students during a Tehran conference called The World without Zionism.
"Ahmadinejad's comments are deeply disturbing and sickening," the Foreign Office spokesman said yesterday.
"Saying Iran wants to wipe Israel from the map will only heighten concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions. We will be protesting to the Iranian charge d'affaires tomorrow," he said.
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