Annan Calls Off Trip Over Iran Leader’s Israel Remarks
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UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has canceled a trip to Tehran in the wake of the Iranian president’s call for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” the United Nations said Friday.
Annan had planned to visit Iran’s capital in mid-November, presumably to talk about Iran’s controversial nuclear program. International condemnation of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s remarks has mounted, and Annan expressed “dismay” last week over the Oct. 26 comments in a rare rebuke of a U.N. member.
“The secretary-general and the Iranian government have mutually agreed that this is not an appropriate time for him to travel to Iran,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. “In light of the ongoing controversy, it would have been difficult to advance the agenda that he had wanted to discuss with the Iranian leadership.”
In Tehran, a Foreign Ministry source contended that it was Iran, not Annan, who wanted the trip rescheduled, the official news agency IRNA reported.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry welcomed Annan’s decision.
“This is not a time for business as usual with the regime in Tehran,” spokesman Mark Regev said.
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