Israel accuses Iran of worst anti-Semitism at U.N.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The president of Iran's speech to the United Nations attacking "Zionist murderers" was reminiscent of one the most notorious anti-Semitic tracts in history, Israel's president said on Tuesday.

In an address that opened with a long discourse on God, justice and morality, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the 192-nation U.N. General Assembly that a few "deceitful" Zionists were manipulating Americans and Europeans and controlled the world's financial and monetary systems.

"This is the first time in the history of the United Nations that the head of a state is appearing openly and publicly with the ugly and dark accusations of the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion,'" Israeli President Shimon Peres said after Ahmadinejad's speech.

He was referring to an anti-Semitic tract published in the early 1900s that described a Jewish and Masonic plot to take over the world. The document has been discredited and is widely considered to be a hoax and a fraud.

"It never took place in this building or in the United Nations," Peres said, adding that it recalled the "the darkest accusations in an air of hatred" and anti-Semitism.

He reiterated Israel's position that Iran has become a "center of terror" with its support for the militant groups Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.