Italy: Top official cancels meeting with Iranian ambassador

Rome, 3 June (AKI)

The President of Italy's lower house or Chamber of Deputies Gianfranco Fini has cancelled a meeting with the Iranian ambassador to Italy. The Iranian ambassador, Abolfazl Zohrevand and Fini were scheduled to meet on 9 June for official talks in Rome. But according to the Chamber of Deputies' website, the meeting has been cancelled after controversial comments by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel would soon disappear. Before leaving Tehran on Monday on his way to Rome for the United Nations' global food summit, Ahmadinejad said Israel would soon "disappear from the geographical scene." Ahmadinejad was speaking to foreign guests from 50 countries at a ceremony on the eve of the 19th anniversary of the death of the late Imam Ayatollah Khomeini, considered the founder of Iran's Islamic revolution. Hundreds of thousands of people were reportedly visiting the Iranian capital to Khomeini's mausoleum on Tuesday.