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Oct. 20, 2006 10:59 | Updated Oct. 21, 2006 0:44
Ahmadinejad: Israel will disappear
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad branded Israeli leaders "a group of
terrorists" Friday, after Israel's prime minister warned Teheran would have "a
price to pay" if it doesn't roll back its nuclear program.
The exchange was among the harshest from either leader, and reflected tension
ahead of the planned circulation next week of a UN draft resolution on Iran's
nuclear program.
Ahmadinejad called the UN Security Council and all its decisions "illegitimate"
and said the world body was being used as a tool of Iran's enemies - the United
States and Britain.
Across Iran, millions took to the streets on "Al-Quds Day," Arabic for
Jerusalem - a national holiday established by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini to assert Muslim claims on the holy city. Rallies took place in Cairo,
Beirut, Baghdad and elsewhere across the Islamic world.
Ahmadinejad, speaking to a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Teheran,
threatened any country that supports Israel, and said the US and its allies had
"imposed a group of terrorists" on the region by their support of the Jewish
state.
"It is in your own interest to distance yourself from these criminals... This
is an ultimatum. Don't complain tomorrow," he cautioned. "Nations will take
revenge."
His comments came a day after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned that Iran would
have "a price to pay" if it does not give up its nuclear ambitions - and hinted
Israel might be forced to take action.
He did not specifically threaten to cripple Iran's nuclear program with a
military strike, as Israel did 25 years ago in Iraq when it sent combat planes
to destroy an unfinished nuclear reactor. But Olmert, en route home from a
three-day trip to Moscow, said the Iranians should "be afraid" of the
consequences of their defiance.
"They have to understand that if they object to every compromise, there will be
a price to pay," he said.
Israel also accused the Iranian government of paying US $50 million to Hamas
leader Khaled Mashaal to block a deal that would have freed kidnapped IDF Cpl.
Gilad Shalit.
The Hamas representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, dismissed the report as "an
obvious Israeli lie."
Diplomats have said they'll seek limited sanctions against Teheran for its
refusal to suspend uranium enrichment - a key process that can produce either
fuel for a nuclear reactor or material for a warhead.
Iran claims enrichment as a national right, but says its program aims only to
generate electricity. The US and some in Europe accuse Teheran of seeking to
develop nuclear weapons.
"What sort of Security Council is this? The whole world knows that the US and
Britain are enemies of the Iranian nation," Ahmadinejad said Friday.
The United States and Britain - along with France, Russia and China - have
power to veto any Security Council measures.
"The time is over for such logic. Under such circumstances, the Security
Council is illegitimate and its decisions are illegitimate," Ahmadinejad said,
drawing chants of "Death to America" from the crowd.
A spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Ahmadinejad's comments
came as no surprise.
"They're consistent with what Mr. Ahmadinejad has said for some time," the
spokesman said on condition of anonymity in keeping with government policy.
"It's why we take the issue of Iran in general so seriously and the possibility
of it acquiring nuclear weaponry so seriously."
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy also condemned Ahmadinejad's
remarks as "unacceptable."
Ahmadinejad, who has previously called for Israel to be wiped off the map,
again predicted the Jewish state's demise Friday.
"This regime, thanks to God, has lost the reason for its existence," he said.
"You should believe that this regime is disappearing."
Hundreds participated in pro-Palestinian rallies across the Middle East, but
Iran's protests were the largest by far.
"Down down with Israel! Generation after generation we will never recognize the
state of Israel!" chanted some of the 500 protesters at Cairo's Al-Azhar
mosque, among the Sunni Arab world's most prominent institutions.
In Lebanon, Hizbullah's No. 2 leader said his group would never stop its
resistance against Israel, after last summer's war.
"Israeli was defeated and fled from Lebanon. The Israeli society was shaken and
its vulnerability was exposed from within," deputy leader Sheik Naim Kassem
told hundreds of attendees at an "Al-Quds Day" concert in Beirut.
In Kfar Kila near the Israeli border, Lebanese soldiers blocked hundreds of
protesters carrying yellow Hizbullah flags from marching close to the border
fence. Parades wove through at least two of Lebanon's Palestinian refugee
camps.
Some 60 Islamist demonstrators burned American and Israeli flags in Istanbul as
well.
In 1981, Khomeini declared the last Friday of the Islamic fasting month of
Ramadan as "Al-Quds Day," a day of protest to show the importance of Jerusalem
to Muslims. Jerusalem is the third holiest site in Islam after the Saudi
Arabian cities of Mecca and Medina.
On Friday, a banner in Teheran carried a quote from Khomeini: "Al-Quds is part
of Islam's body."
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