U.S.,U.N. condemn Ahmadinejad

The United States and the U.N. secretary-general condemned the Iranian president’s recent comments about Israel.The State Department said Thursday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s comments about the destruction of Israel are “the latest in a line of statements isolating the Iranian regime from the rest of the international community” and are further “cause for mistrust.”Also Thursday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was “shocked and dismayed” by the president’s comments. Ban also noted that under the U.N. Charter, all states are obliged to refrain from threats against the territorial integrity of other states. On Friday, France introduced a draft declaration to the U.N. Security Council condemning Ahmadinejad for the comments and reaffirming Israel’s rights as a U.N. member. A spokesman for the French delegation said his government hoped to adopt the declaration on Friday, but that effort failed after Indonesia expressed reservations and Qatar said it had no instructions from its capital.France intends to raise the matter again on Monday.