Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at the recent UN racism conference had widespread Arab support even if it stirred a Western walkout over his anti-Israeli stand, Syria said on Wednesday, according to a report in the French news agency AFP.
"A large proportion of public opinion in the Arab world supports the words of the Iranian president," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said at a joint press conference with his Luxembourg counterpart Jean Asselborn. "The Palestinian Authority Arabs should not be turned into victims of a Holocaust which they did not commit. It should not serve as a pretext for the Israelis to commit a Holocaust in Palestine, Gaza, the West Bank or Lebanon," Muallem said.
The president used his podium in Geneva to criticize the creation of a "totally racist government in occupied Palestine" in 1948, branding the Israeli administration "the most cruel and repressive racist regime." Ahmadinejad, who has previously called for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map, said the West "sent migrants from Europe, the United States ... in order to establish a racist government in the occupied Palestine." His remarks prompted 23 European Union delegations to walk out in protest.