Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran was determined to eradicate Israel. "Iran believes that whoever is for humanity should also be for eradicating the Zionist regime (Israel) as symbol of suppression and discrimination," Ahmadinejad said in an interview with Hezbollah’s television network ‘al-Manar’ in Lebanon. “The bankrupt, uncivilized and criminal Zionist regime wishes to inflict losses on Iran but they know that Iran's response to any such efforts will be crushing and regrettable,” the hard-line Iranian leader declared.
Ahmadinejad said that Iran had amicable ties with all countries in the Middle East except Israel, and added that the Iranian nation opposed injustice, oppression, dependence and humiliation. He also emphasized the importance of establishing close ties with Egypt and reiterated that if unity between Tehran and Cairo took effect, no place would be left for Israel or Western powers in the region.
"Iran follows this issue [the eradication of Israel] with determination and decisiveness and will never ever withdraw from this standpoint and policy," the Iranian president added. The remarks by Ahmadinejad came a day before the annual anti-Israeli rallies named al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day, which are held nationwide in Iran on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month Ramadan.
Ahmadinejad on Monday said that Iranians and Muslim nations worldwide should hold rallies and show their willingness to dispose of this "infectious tumor and this regime full of rascality." Iranians were a pioneer nation in defending oppressed people across the world against “misconducts of arrogant powers and global Zionism,” he claimed.
The Iranian president has repeatedly sparked international outrage for his aggressive stance against Israel. In 2005, he said that the Jewish state should “be wiped off the map” or transferred to Europe or North America.
