Tehran, September 06: Any attack on Iran would lead to the destruction of the state of Israel as a political entity, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said during a visit to the Gulf Arab state of Qatar on Sunday.
“Any measure against Iran would be tantamount to the elimination of the Zionist regime from the political geography (of the region),” he said at a news conference, referring to a possible attack by Israel or the United States.
His comments in Farsi were carried on Iranian state news agency IRNA.
Ahmadinejad, in Western allied-Qatar for talks with Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, has often called for the demise of the Jewish state. Iran does not recognise Israel, which it refers to as the Zionist regime.
Israel, believed to be the only nuclear-armed country in the Middle East, regards Iran’s nuclear programme as a threat to its existence and has not ruled out military action to prevent Iran from building an atomic bomb.
International sanctions have been imposed on Iran to force Tehran to halt sensitive nuclear work. Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, to primarily generate electricity.
—Agencies