"Atomic Apartheid"

"Unsurprisingly, the phrase 'atomic apartheid' is being heard increasingly in Iranian government circles as well as by ordinary Iranians who feel that their country is being unfairly singled out [for exclusion from the nuclear club]."

Talk about twisting this worldwide catchphrase for oppression and discrimination to your own purposes. Then, last week, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" at the discreetly titled "World Without Zionism" conference in Teheran.

Guess that's one way to throw off the yoke of apartheid. However, Ahmadinejad only confirmed the US and Israel's worst suspicions, paving the way for them to petition the UN for sanctions on Iran.

As Iason Athanasiadis explains in an article on AsiaTimesOnline, from which the above and below quotes were taken, moderate Iranian politicians were mortified too.

"In Tehran, Westernized Iranians expressed their surprise at their president's naivete in playing into the hands of Tel Aviv and Washington. . . . 'He has no control over his words,' was the reaction of an Iranian academic. 'Add to this some bad advisors around him, and you have a lethal combination.'"

It's bad enough the US has a loose cannon for a president. Not Iran too.

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