The Zionist political movement was formally established by the Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl in 1897.
Ahmadi-nejad made his startling comment on history in a meeting with a group of ambassadors to Iran from Muslim countries.
Ahmadi-nejad underscored for the ambassadors the need for a united global front to deal with the “inhumane” hegemony of Zionism embodied by the Zionist government in Israel.
“The Zionist regime is both the symbol of Zionism in the world and a tool to reinforce the dominance of the arrogant powers in the region and across the globe,” he told the assembled ambassadors.
He said a glance at the present situation in the world, particularly in states such as Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Syria and Turkey, shows that all nations are impacted by the “arrogant system’s plots,” emphasizing that the existing form of global management has failed humanity and its principles.
Ahmadi-nejad said that a “dreadful Zionist current” has been managing key international affairs over the past 400 years and is “behind the scene of the world’s main powers, media, monetary and banking centers.” Apart from the date, this is not original with Ahmadi-nejad, but is foundational anti-Semitism popularized under the Third Reich but dating back far before its founding in 1933.
Ahmadi-nejad did not say from where he got his historical information about 400 years of Zionist domination. It was not an error by a Tehran newspaper; that was the number he used as reported on the president’s own website. (The Fars news agency, however, quoted the presidnt as saying the Zionist plot was 500 years old.)
The president further warned against enemy plots to cause religious and ethnic clashes among Muslims. That is a favorite theme with the Islamic Republic. The president said there would be no hostilities among Muslims without outside forces promoting them.
The president said he found it shameful that the presidential candidates of an unnamed country with a population of over 300 million felt they had to meet top Israel officials to win election.