Canada slams Iran's anti-Israel statement

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin joined the United States in scolding Iran on Sunday for the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's remarks that Israel is a "disgraceful blot" that should be "wiped off the map," the Canadian Press reported.

Speaking at the 74th annual United Jewish Communities General Assembly in Toronto, Martin said, "Canada will not stand for such hateful speech or its implications."

"This threat to Israel's existence, this call for genocide coupled with Iran's obvious nuclear ambitions is a matter that the world cannot ignore," the Canadian Press quoted Martin as saying.

"Iran must know in no uncertain terms that the free nations of the world will not tolerate its intransigence."

During her visit to Israel, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave her strongest rebuke yet to the renewed hard-line Islamic leadership of Iran, saying that "no civilized nation" can call for the annihilation of another.

"No civilized nation should have a leader who wishes or hopes or desires or considers it a matter of policy to express that. . .another country should be pushed into the sea," Rice said.

"It is unacceptable in the international system."

'Educated, sophisticated people'

Rice added that the Bush administration is under no illusions about the difficulty of spreading democracy in the region.

"We are not naive about the pace, or difficulty, of democratic change," she said. "But we know that the longing for democratic change is deep and urgently felt."

The hard-liner Ahmadinejad was the surprise winner in June elections in Iran, and he immediately set about undoing the reforms and international outreach of the previous moderate-leaning government.

"When we look at a country like Iran we see an educated and sophisticated people who are the bearers of a great civilization," Rice said.

"And we also see that as Iran's government has grown more divorced from the will of its citizens it has become more threatening, not less threatening."