Anti-Israel Protests In Iran

A Million March, Repeat President's Call For Israel's Destruction

(CBS/AP)  More than a million Iranians staged anti-Israel protests across the country on Friday, repeating calls by their ultraconservative president for the Jewish state's destruction.

World leaders have condemned Wednesday's remarks by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who repeated the words of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic revolution, by saying: "Israel must be wiped off the map."

Israel called for an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council, reports CBS News correspondent Robert Berger, and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Israel has decided on a broad diplomatic offensive.

"The fact that Iran has had for years a clandestine nuclear weapons program makes the Iranian statements about eliminating Israel all that more serious," said government spokesman Dore Gold.

On Friday the Iranian embassy in Moscow tried to soften the impact of Ahmadinejad's comment.

"Mr. Ahmadinejad did not have any intention to speak in sharp terms and engage in a conflict," the Iranian embassy in Moscow said in a statement following a wave of international criticism.

It added that Ahmadinejad "underlined the key position of Iran, based on the necessity to hold free elections on the occupied territories."

The embassy statement came after Moscow, a key ally of Iran, joined criticism of Ahmadinejad's statement and summoned the Iranian ambassador to ask for an explanation.

But Ahmadinejad Friday rejected the widespread criticism of his remarks. "It is natural that if a word is right and just it will provoke a reaction," the official news agency IRNA quote him as saying. "My words are the exact words of the Iranian people."

The U.S. and Israel "are cheeky humans, and they think that the entire world should obey them. They destroy Palestinian families and expect nobody to object to them," Ahmadinejad said.

Iranians staged multiple demonstrations in the capital, Tehran, and other cities such as Mashad in Iran's east, holding banners carrying anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian slogans. "Death to Israel, death to America," read many of the placards.

The state-organized demonstrations are part of the annual al-Quds — Jerusalem — Day protests, which were first held in 1979 after Shiite Muslim clerics took power in Iran.

While trying to downplay Ahmadinejad's comments, the Iranian embassy in Moscow's statement blamed "Zionist circles" for fanning anti-Iranian sentiments because of Iran's nuclear program.

Countries from Britain to Russia denounced Ahmadinejad's comments. The United States said the Iranian leader's hostility underscored Washington's concern over Iran's nuclear program. Israel said Iran should be suspended from the United Nations.

Iran's seven state-run TV stations devoted coverage Friday to programs condemning the Jewish state and praising the Palestinian resistance since the 1948 creation of Israel.

Three stations also showed live coverage of crowds of people gathering early Friday in streets throughout Tehran. One man who appeared to be in his 30s carried a placard saying: "The late Khomeini said Israel should be wiped off the map."

After Khomeini toppled the pro-Western Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1979, he declared the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as an international day of struggle against Israel and for the liberation of Jerusalem.

The Iranian government organizes a central demonstration annually in Tehran, while other rallies demanding Israel's destruction are held around the world. Lebanon's Hezbollah is expected to stage a mass military parade in Beirut on Friday.