WASHINGTON/LONDON, Oct 27: Israel on Thursday called for Iran’s expulsion from the United Nations after its president said the Jewish state should be ‘wiped off the map’.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s comments at a Tehran conference on Wednesday drew international condemnation and underscored Western scrutiny on the Iranian nuclear programme.

“A country that calls for the destruction of another people cannot be a member of the United Nations,” Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office quoted him as saying in a statement.

Vice Premier Shimon Peres said he might seek an official Israeli mandate to request Iran’s expulsion from the United Nations, but admitted that such an outcome would be unlikely.

“I don’t know if it has any chance of success. But it is something we must say. I don’t think it is a matter of what one thinks is worthwhile or not. This is intolerable,” Mr Peres told Israel Radio.

Iran’s expulsion from the United Nations would require a Security Council recommendation and two-thirds majority vote in the General Assembly — unlikely given the traditional support by many developing countries for anti-Israel resolutions.

Taiwan’s UN representative was expelled in 1971 after the General Assembly voted to admit the rival People’s Republic of China instead. South Africa was stripped of a vote in 1974 due to its apartheid policies, but it was not technically expelled.

Iran refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist and supports Palestinian militant groups such as Islamic Jihad.

Believed to have the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal, Israel has joined the United States in urging international efforts to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear programme is for energy needs only.

“Such a country that has nuclear weapons is a danger, not only to Israel and the Middle East, but also to Europe,” Mr Sharon said in a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Addressing a conference titled ‘The World Without Zionism’, attended by some 3,000 conservative students who chanted ‘Death to Israel’ and ‘Death to America”, President Ahmadinejad said ‘Israel must be wiped off the map’.

Mr Ahmadinejad, a former member of the hardline Revolutionary Guards, vowed no let-up in Iran’s hostility to Israel.

“The Islamic world will not let its historic enemy live in its heartland,” he said.

Iranian officials and analysts said on Thursday Mr Ahmadinejad’s call does not signal the start of a more aggressive stance toward Israel by Tehran.—Reuters/AFP