03rd
June 2007
Iran's
president said on Sunday the Lebanese and the
Palestinians had pressed a "countdown button" to bring
an end to Israel.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who triggered outrage in
the West two years ago when he said Israel should be
"wiped off the map", has often referred to the
destruction of the Jewish state but says Iran is not a
threat.
"With
God's help, the countdown button for the destruction of
the Zionist regime has been pushed by the hands of the
children of Lebanon and Palestine," Ahmadinejad said in
a speech.
"By
God's will, we will witness the destruction of this
regime in the near future," he said. He did not
elaborate.
Iran
often praises the Palestinians for what it says is their
resistance against Israeli occupation. Tehran also
described the war last summer between Hezbollah in
Lebanon and Israel as a victory for the Iranian-backed
group.
"If you
make a mistake and create another war against the
oppressed Lebanese nation, this time the angry ocean of
the nations of the region will remove your rotten ...
roots from the region," the president said in another
speech on Sunday night.
Ahmadinejad's speeches were made ahead of ahead of
Monday's anniversary of the death in 1989 of Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic,
whose words Ahmadinejad echoed when he called for Israel
to be "wiped off the map".
The
president's comments caused consternation in Israel and
the West, which also fear Iran is seeking to build an
atomic arsenal under cover of a civilian nuclear power
programme, a charge Tehran denies.
Although
Ahmadinejad has said Iran is not a threat to Israel,
Iranian officials have said Tehran would respond swiftly
to any Israeli attack. Some analysts have speculated
Israel could seek to knock out Iran's atomic sites.
