Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday described arch-foe Israel "the flag of Satan," and said the Jewish state was destined to fall apart, the official IRNA news agency reported."The Zionist regime is the flag bearer of violation and occupation and this regime is the flag of Satan," Ahmadinejad told an international religious conference in Tehran. "It is not unlikely that this regime be on the path to dissolution and deterioration when the philosophy behind its creation and survival is invalid," he said.
Iran consistently refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist in the Middle East, and Ahmadinejad sparked outrage in the international community when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map" shortly after coming to power in 2005. In June, he said a "countdown" had begun that would end with Lebanese and Palestinian militants destroying Israel. His government last year hosted a conference on the Holocaust questioning the German Nazis genocide of the Jews during World War II.
