Report: Tehran to host Intifada conference

           Hundreds of Iranian and foreign politicians are due to participate in an international conference in support of the Palestinian Intifada in Tehran on Saturday, the Iranian Fars news agency reported. "Over 50 parliamentary delegations and political figures, elites and intellectuals and many state officials from Muslim and non-Muslim countries are due to attend the conference," Fars quoted conference organizer Hossein Sheikholeslam as saying. According to the report, Sheikholeslam said that the 2-day conference will be chaired by Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, who is also scheduled to hold separate meetings with several parliamentary delegations on the sidelines of the conference. The news agency said that delegations from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Hungary, Colombia and many others have announced their willingness to participate in the conference. The fifth annual event comes in light of the Palestinian bid for UN recognition, which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas submitted last week to the global body's Security Council. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who addressed the UN General Assembly ahead of the submittal of the PA's proposal, accused the "Zionist regime" of imposing "homelessness, terror, and mass murder on the Palestinian people." Ahmadinejad, known for his fiery anti-Zionist rhetoric, claimed in a different speech last Friday that the creation of a universally-recognized Palestinian state would be just a first step towards wiping out Israel. "Recognizing the Palestinian state is not the last goal. It is only one step forward towards liberating the whole of Palestine," Ahmadinejad said. "The Zionist regime is a center of microbes, a cancer cell and if it exists in one iota of Palestine it will mobilize again and hurt everyone." (07,00)