LONDON: Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will deliver an alternative Christmas message on British television to rival Queen Elizabeth II’s annual address, broadcaster Channel Four said yesterday.
Ahmadinejad, whose comments will go out on 1915 GMT on Christmas Day, will say that if Jesus Christ were alive today, he would oppose “bullying, ill-tempered and expansionist powers”, according to a pre-released transcript.

Britain and Iran have had rocky relations since the 1979 Islamic revolution, particularly over Iran’s disputed nuclear programme, which the West fears could be used to build arms but Tehran insists is for civilian purposes.

Ahmadinejad is the most high-profile guest yet on Channel Four’s alternative broadcast, which was started in 1993 and has seen Jesse Jackson, Brigitte Bardot and cartoon character Marge Simpson among others take to the airwaves.

However, Israel’s ambassador in London, Ron Prosor, condemned the message as a “scandal and a national embarrassment” given the Iranian president’s denial of the Holocaust and his calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

“In Iran, converts to Christianity face the death penalty. It is perverse that this despot is allowed to speculate on the views of Jesus, while his government leads Christ’s followers to the gallows,” he said.

The message begins with Ahmadinejad congratulating Christians and the people of Britain on the anniversary of the birth of Christ, which Christians celebrate on Christmas Day.

“If Christ were on Earth today, undoubtedly he would stand with the people in opposition to bullying, ill-tempered and expansionist powers,” he says.

“If Christ were on earth today, undoubtedly he would hoist the banner of justice and love for humanity to oppose warmongers, occupiers, terrorists and bullies the world over.”

Speaking in Persian, Ahmadinejad blames society’s problems on humanity’s rejection of religion but predicts Christ will return and “will lead the world to love, brotherhood and justice”.

He ends by saying: “I pray for the New Year to be a year of happiness, prosperity, peace and brotherhood for humanity. I wish you every success and happiness.”

Explaining the decision to invite Ahmadinejad to speak, Channel Four’s head of news and current affairs Dorothy Byrne said: “As the leader of one of the most powerful states in the Middle East, President Ahmadinejad’s views are enormously influential.

Kurdish rebels launched a deadly attack in southeastern Turkey hours after the Turkish and Iraqi prime ministers vowed a fresh clampdown on the separatists, officials said Thursday. Skip related content

Three soldiers were killed and another nine wounded, four of them seriously, when rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) armed with automatic weapons attacked an army vehicle, the local officials said.

The attack late Wednesday in the village of Cizre, near the borders of both Iraq and Syria, came hours after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks in Ankara with Iraqi counterpart Nuri al-Maliki.

The prime ministers vowed to step up their cooperation against Turkish Kurdish rebels whose presence in neighbouring northern Iraq has cast a shadow over relations.

The thorny issue of PKK rebels taking shelter in Iraqi mountains along the border was at the centre of their talks.

"We should not allow terrorist organisations, in particular the PKK, to weaken our relations," Maliki said.

Erdogan said the fight against "terrorism" was a common issue for the neighbouring nations. "Our joint fight will continue," he said.

Maliki later told reporters that a mechanism of three-way talks between Iraq, Turkey and the United States, set up last month, was tasked with doing "what is necessary... against any activities by the PKK."

"We have a common understanding that it is a terrorist organisation," he said.

Hundreds of militants from the PKK are holed up the mountains of northern Iraq, which they use as a launching pad for cross-border attacks on Turkish targets.

Turkish warplanes have since last year bombed rebel hideouts in the region.

Ankara has often accused the Iraqi Kurds, who run an autonomous administration in northern Iraq, of tolerating and even aiding the rebels.

But in a policy shift earlier this year, it said it would seek to resolve the issue through diplomacy and intensified contacts with the Iraqi Kurds, whom it had long snubbed.

Iraqi Kurds are now included in the three-way talks.

A senior Turkish official said Wednesday Ankara "sees signs" that the Iraqi Kurds are willing to cooperate against the PKK.

On the eve of Maliki's visit, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, gave fresh assurances that both Baghdad and the Kurdish administration of northern Iraq were determined to purge the region of the PKK.

"We, the Iraqi Kurds, will no longer allow armed people from any Kurdish group to use our territory to carry out attacks on Turkey or Iran," Talabani said in an interview with Turkey's Aksam daily.

He said Kurdish parties in northern Iraq would soon convene a meeting to issue a joint appeal to the PKK to abandon its armed struggle.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, took up arms for self-rule in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 44,000 lives.