Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, well-known for his hatred for Israel, proposed on Sunday a “simple solution” to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority: “Everyone should go home.”
“If the backers of the Zionist regime want to solve the issue... the solution is simple ... everyone should go home,” AFP quoted Ahmadinejad as saying during an international conference.
Referring to Jewish immigrants who came to Israel over the years, he added, “Some poor people were brought to Palestine on the promise of security and jobs while they made Palestinian people into refugees... So now Palestinians should go home and those brought here should go to theirs.”
Ahmadinejad’s comments were made during a two-day “International Conference on Palestine” which took place in Tehran. It was attended by parliamentarians from some 20 nations and figures including Khaled Meshaal, leader of the Hamas terrorist group.
At the conference opening on Saturday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reiterated the Islamic republic’s opposition to the division of so-called ‘Palestinian’ lands.
“Any plan which would lead to the division of Palestine is unacceptable,” AFP quoted Khamenei as having said. “Any plan that would create two states ... would be accepting a Zionist state in the land of Palestine.”
Khamenei also said that Tehran believes that the “Palestinian” issue should be resolved by means of a referendum among Arabs living under the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
“We do not seek to drown Jewish immigrants in the sea, nor establish UN rule, we propose holding a referendum among all Palestinians,” he said.
AFP reported that Ahmadinejad dubbed Israel on Sunday “a cancerous tumor” which had to be removed to save the region and the world. He also blamed Israel for the deaths of top Iranian nuclear scientists.
Last week, the Iranian president accused Israel of kidnapping and holding four Iranians, three of them diplomats, prisoner since 1982. He called on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon “to take serious measures for their release.”
In his recent speech to the United Nations, Ahmadinejad lambasted Israel, saying the “Zionist regime imposes terror on the Palestinian people.”
He also cast aspersion on the Holocaust and hinted the September 11 attacks occurred under dubious circumstances as well.