U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has canceled a trip to Iran in response to mounting tension over the Iranian president's call for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
Annan decided it is "not an appropriate time" for him to go to Iran, citing the "ongoing controversy" over Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's remarks, according to a statement from the secretary-general's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.
Annan expressed "dismay" last week over the remarks in a rare rebuke of a U.N. member state. "In light of the ongoing controversy, it would have been difficult to advance the agenda that (Annan) had wanted to discuss with the Iranian leadership," Dujarric's statement said Friday.
