More trouble from Iran...

Iran will be the big story of 2006. Hopefully, it won't be a tragic tale. A "velvet revolution may be too much to wish for, but for the sake of the people of Iran, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The latest from AP on the troubling situation there:

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's hard-line president who has said the Holocaust was a myth, now has charged that European countries sought to complete the genocide by establishing a Jewish state in the midst of Muslim countries.

''Don't you think that continuation of genocide by expelling Jews from Europe was one of their aims in creating a regime of occupiers of Al-Quds [Jerusalem]?'' the official Islamic Republic News agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying Sunday. ''Isn't that an important question?''

Ahmadinejad said Europeans had decided to create a ''Jewish camp'' as the best means for ridding the continent of Jews. He said the camp, Israel, now enjoyed support from the United States and Europe in the slaughter of Muslims.

In October, Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be ''wiped off the map.''