Iran leader proud of anger over Holocaust remark

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday that he was proud of the anger he had caused by calling the Holocaust a "myth," just days before he is due to address the United Nations General Assembly.

"The anger of the world's professional killers is a source of pride for us," the official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying, in an apparent reference to arch-foe Israel and the United States.

Western governments expressed outrage at the Iranian president's remarks, made during a keynote speech on Friday to an annual mass rally in support of the Palestinians.

"The pretext for establishing the Zionist regime is a lie... a lie which relies on an unreliable claim, a mythical claim, and the occupation of Palestine has nothing to do with the Holocaust," Ahmadinejad had said.

Washington said that the comments were "baseless, ignorant and hateful." The European Union said they "encourage anti-Semitism and hatred."

The anger of the world's professional killers is a source of pride for us

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Message of peace

Despite Ahmadinejad's defiant defense of his controversial remark, an aide insisted earlier on Monday that he would be heading to the U.N. General Assembly with a message of peace.

"His main message is to have peace and friendship with all nations based on justice and mutual respect," IRNA quoted Mohammad Jaffar Mohammad Zadeh, information officer in Ahmadinejad's office, as saying.

Mohammad Zadeh added, however, that he expected the "Zionist lobby" to try "to stop Iran's righteous words from being conveyed by its elected president to other nations."

The pretext for establishing the Zionist regime is a lie... a lie which relies on an unreliable claim, a mythical claim, and the occupation of Palestine has nothing to do with the Holocaust

Ahmadinejad

Israel maintains military option

Meanwhile a senior Israeli official said the Jewish state has not given up the option of a military response to Tehran's nuclear program, after Russia's president said his Israeli counterpart assured him it would not attack Iran.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon was asked by Reuters if that comment by Israeli President Shimon Peres, as reported on Sunday by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, was a guarantee there would be no Israeli strike on Iran.

Ayalon replied: "It is certainly not a guarantee."I don't think that, with all due respect, the Russian president is authorized to speak for Israel and certainly we have not taken any option off the table."

Israel has long dismissed Iranian assurances that its nuclear program is not intended to produce weapons and has said it would not tolerate such a level of armament in the Islamic Republic, which is avowedly hostile to the Jewish state.

A Kremlin transcript of an interview Medvedev gave to CNN last Tuesday quoted him as saying that an attack on Iran would lead to "a humanitarian disaster" and risk provoking retaliation against Israel that would also affect other nations.

"But my Israeli colleagues told me that they were not planning to act in this way and I trust them," Medvedev added.

During a meeting on the Black Sea in August, Peres, a former prime minister whose current role is largely ceremonial, had told him Israel would not attack Iran, Medvedev said.

"Israeli President Peres said something important for us all: 'Israel does not plan to launch any strikes on Iran, we are a peaceful country and we will not do this'," Medvedev said.

Russia plays a role in the stand-off between Israel and Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who made an unannounced visit to Moscow this month, has been keen that Russia not sell anti-aircraft missiles to Tehran and also that Moscow support international sanctions against Iran.

But my Israeli colleagues told me that they were not planning to act in this way and I trust them

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev