Tehran, February 28: Israel has lost its “raison d’etre” and its presence in the region causes instability, Iranian media quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying Sunday at a conference attended by top Palestinian militant leaders.
“With God’s grace and thanks to the Palestinian resistance the occupying Zionist regime has lost its raison d’être,” Ahmadinejad said at a Tehran conference in support of the Palestinians.
“Their presence (Israel’s) even in one inch of the region’s soil causes threat, crisis and war,” the state-run television’s website quoted him as saying.
“The only way to confront them (Israelis) is through the Palestinian youths’ resistance, and that of the regional nations,” he added.
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Abdullah Shallah and the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, Ahmed Jibril, all of whom live in exile, were at the conference, Iranian media said.
Iran does not recognise Israel and is a staunch backer of Palestinian militant groups.
Tensions have soared between Iran and Israel since Ahmadinejad, a hardliner, came to power in 2005.
Ahmadinejad has drawn international condemnation by predicting that Israel is doomed to disappear and dismissing the Holocaust as a “myth,” while Israel has refused to rule out military action to prevent Iran from possibly developing a nuclear bomb.
—Agencies