(dpa) - The European Union on Monday said comments by the Iranian hierarchy to the effect that Israel is an illegitimate state with no future were "unacceptable, damaging and uncivilised."
In a statement issued on behalf of the bloc's 27 member states, the EU presidency strongly condemned a string of recent anti-Israeli comments made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and other top Iranian officials.
The EU said Iran should "stop hostile rhetoric", refrain from threatening other members of the international community and "support the need for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict."
Iran does not acknowledge Israel as a sovereign state and historic hostilities reached their peak following the 2005 election of President Ahmadinejad, who not only called for Israel's elimination from the Middle East but also questioned the Holocaust.