Israel should be wiped off the map."
Addressing 4,000 students at a program called "The World Without Zionism" in 2005, the newly elected Iranian President dismissed his predecessor's proposals of dialogue between Israel and Iran, choosing instead to revive the anti-Israel rhetoric commonly heard in the early days of Iran's Islamic revolution. The Bush Administration cited Ahmadinejad's remark as proof that the world should be nervous about Tehran's nuclear ambitions: "It reconfirms what we've been saying about the regime in Iran," said then-White House spokesman Scott McClellan. Ahmadinejad's advisors later claimed that his remarks were mistranslated by the Islamic Republic News Agency.