Iran's president-elect Hassan Rouhani has brushed off threats of military action against the Islamic republic by Israeli, which he insulted as a "miserable regional country".
By AFP
He brushed off comments by Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of
Israel, that Israel could take unilateral military action to halt Iran's
nuclear programme.
"When some [the United States and Israel] say that all options are on
the table and when a miserable regional country [Israel] says such
things, it makes you laugh," Rouhani said in an address to Iran-Iraq war
veterans, according to Iranian media reports.
"Who are the Zionists to threaten us?" the cleric said, insisting that
warnings of an Iranian retaliation had stopped Israel from carrying out
its threats to launch strikes on Iran.
Mr Rouhani will succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran's president on
August 3. His election has brought hopes of a more moderate stance
towards Israel, after Mr Ahmadinejad routinely called for the Jewish
state's eradication during his eight years in office.
However the new president's remarks demonstrated the high basic level of
antipathy towards Israel that permeates official Iranian attitudes.
Mr Netanyahu on Sunday renewed his threat to take unilateral military
action to halt Iran's nuclear programme, disparagingly referring to
Rouhani as "a wolf in sheep's clothing" who would "smile and build a
bomb".
"We're closer than the United States. We're more vulnerable. And
therefore, we'll have to address this question of how to stop Iran,
perhaps before the United States does," Mr Netanyahu said on CBS News's Face the Nation.
"They're edging up to the red line. They haven't crossed it yet," the
Israeli premier said, referring to the point at which Iran would be able
to make its first nuclear weapon.
"They're getting closer and closer to the bomb. And they have to be told
in no uncertain terms that that will not be allowed to happen."
Israel is the Middle East's sole but undeclared nuclear power.
Iran for years has been at loggerheads with world powers over its
nuclear drive, which Western nations and Israel believe is aimed at
developing an atomic weapons capability. Tehran insists its nuclear
programme is entirely peaceful.
The Iranians offered some encouragement on Wednesday when the foreign
ministry promised to resume talks with world powers on its controversial
nuclear programme once Mr Rowhani has been sworn in and a new
negotiating team formed.
Edited by Alex Spillius for The Telegraph.
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