The United States on Thursday denounced Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 'unfortunate' new verbal attacks against Israel.
"In terms of president Ahmadinejad's comments related to Israel, I think it just continues an unfortunate pattern of remarks that I think have generally been rejected by most other members of the international community," US State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.
Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and questioned the Holocaust, blasted his arch-enemy again on Thursday as a "fraudulent and illegitimate" regime that "cannot survive."
Ahmadinejad, in a speech south-west of Tehran, also insisted that Iran will not back down "an inch" over its nuclear program despite the growing threat of sanctions.
The United States is pressing for UN Security Council sanctions against Iran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to produce nuclear reactor fuel but also for bomb-making.
The West suspects that Tehran is seeking to build nuclear weapons under the cover of its civilian atomic program. But Iran insists its program is for peaceful energy purposes only and argues it has every right to enrich uranium under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Casey said discussions between the UN envoys of the Security Council's five permanent members -- the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia -- on drafting a UN sanctions resolution were "going well."
"We're making progress on them and look forward to being able to have a resolution for people to consider in the near future," he said.