Senior officials in Jerusalem criticized President Moshe Katsav over the weekend for shaking the hand of President Mohammad Khatami at Pope John Paul II’s funeral on Friday.”Homeland declares openly that it wants to liquidate Israel. What would we say if the president of the United States shook Khatami’s hand?” one of the officials asked. He said that Israel is working to isolate Iran for its threats to destroy Israel and efforts to manufacture nuclear arms.
According to the source, there was “no problem with shaking Syrian President Bashar Assad’s hand.”Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has not discussed the issue with Katsav and his aides said he has no intention of doing so.Earlier, Katsav said he had shaken hands with Khatami and Assad at the funeral on Friday.But Khatami vehemently denied this. “This claim is like other baseless claims made by the Zionist media in the past,” he said. “Recognizing Israel means recognizing occupation and force,” Khatami told the state-run Iranian media. “Morally and logically, we do not recognize the Zionist regime.
