Iran: Palestine statehood \'step forward\'

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday that the potential recognition of a Palestinian state by the United Nations should only be a "step forward" for the "full liberation" of Palestine. His strong remarks calling for Israel's "disappearance" came as tens of thousands marched in the capital at a "Quds Day" rally, an annual regime-sanctioned demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians and against Israel, according to footage aired on state television. The broadcast showed large crowds in major cities, carrying banners of "Death to Israel" and "Death to America." "The recognition of an independent Palestinian government is not the ultimate goal... (but) only a step forward for the full liberation of the Palestinian land," Ahmadinejad said at Friday prayers at Tehran University. "The Zionist regime is the hotbed for germs and cancerous cells. If they persist even in a very small parcel of the Palestinian land, they will move again... and harm everyone" in the region, he said in comments broadcast on television. Ahmadinejad reiterated that the Holocaust was a "lie" which he said was used as an excuse for Israel's creation. The hardline president, whose vitriolic attacks on the Jewish state and his dismissal of the Holocaust as a "myth" have drawn international condemnation, regularly rails against Israel. "The goal of all believers and justice seekers should be focused on the disappearance of the Zionist regime," he said as the worshippers shouted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America." He also warned Israelis that they "had no place" in the Middle East. "Your era is over. It is in your interest to return to your homes... You have no place in our region and among our nations." The Palestinians are to formally submit their request for statehood to UN chief Ban Ki-moon on September 20, when world leaders begin gathering in New York for the 66th session of the General Assembly. The decision comes after direct peace talks with Israel ran aground late last year in an intractable dispute over Jewish settlement construction on occupied Palestinian land. Israel is strongly opposed to such a move, saying negotiations are the only way to resolve the conflict and establish a Palestinian state -- a position backed by Washington, which has announced its intention to veto the request. On Friday, Ahmadinejad also warned the West against "interference" in the region, which has been the scene of political crises and popular uprisings in recent months. "Freedom, justice and free election... are the legitimate rights of all people but we should be careful (because) they will not be born out of the guns of NATO and US forces," Ahmadinejad said. He did not name any country, but this week Libyan rebels backed by NATO air raids stormed Tripoli after more than six months of fighting and placed a bounty on strongman Moamer Kadhafi's head. Iran regularly denounces the presence and intervention of American and Western forces in the region, specifically in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, even when regimes criticised by Tehran are ousted. The Islamic republic has supported uprisings throughout the Arab world with the exception of Syria, its main regional ally, where it backs the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, who has invited international condemnation for deadly crackdowns on protests that have killed more 2,200 people. "Any government that does not have good relations with its people and deprives them of liberty and justice does not stand a chance of (keeping) its rule," he said. "But the solution does not lie with the intervention of NATO forces and oppressors."