President urges leaders to support Palestinians
The leader toned down his attack on Israel.
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TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday called Israel an "unending and unrestrained threat" to the Islamic world and urged regional leaders to support the cash-strapped Palestinian government.
Ahmadinejad's remarks came at the opening of a two-day conference that's intended to rally support for the Palestinian cause. More than 600 delegates from 50 countries, including representatives from the militant Islamic groups Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah, attended the opening ceremony.
The United States and Europe cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority after the militant Islamic group Hamas, which Iran supports, won elections in January.
Bashing Israel
The Iranian leader's speech Friday was filled with jabs at Israel, which he called "a decaying and crumbling tree that will fall with a storm."
"If there are doubts regarding the Holocaust, there are really no doubts about the Palestinian disaster," Ahmadinejad said.
But Friday's speech was more subdued than statements he made last year, when he questioned whether the Holocaust occurred and said Israel "must be wiped off the map."
It was the second time in a week that Iran has quarreled with the United States and Europe. On Tuesday, Ahmadinejad said Iran had conducted small-scale uranium enrichment in defiance of a demand by the United Nations Security Council that it suspend its nuclear program.
Israeli officials have called Ahmadinejad an anti-Semite whose nuclear efforts must be stopped.