Iran: 'Iran's leader says Jewish state 'should be wiped from map'. Iran's hardline President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has stirred up a diplomatic storm and risked further isolating his country by saying that Israel should be "wiped off the map". Iran's refusal officially to recognise Israel's right to exist is a major obstacle to improved relations between Tehran and the West and has fuelled Israeli fears that the Islamic republic is bent on building a nuclear bomb. Yesterday's diatribe - the first such outburst in many years by an Iranian leader - will have done nothing to assuage fears.' (Independent)