Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday that the objection of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to remarks by Israeli President Shimon Peres was "a genuine expression of the heartfelt feelings of both the Turkish people and other nations worldwide."

Erdogan walked off the stage after an angry exchange with the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, during a panel discussion on Gaza at the World Economic Forum on Thursday, and vowed never to return to the annual gathering.

Ahmadinejad hailed Erdogan's reaction as "praiseworthy" and said the Turkish PM, as a human being who felt deeply for human dignity and justice, "behaved the way he was expected in condemning the Zionist crimes and its barbaric atrocities," KUNA reports.