Tehran, February 12: Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel should be resisted and finished off if it launched military action in the region, state broadcaster IRIB reported yesterday.
Ahmadeinjad’s comments were made when the president spoke over the telephone with his Syrian counterpart late on Wednesday. Last week, Syria — a key regional ally of Iran — accused Israel of pushing the Middle East towards a new war.
Lebanese Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri, in an interview broadcast on Wednesday, said Israeli aircraft were making daily incursions into Lebanese air space, creating a very dangerous situation.
“We have reliable information … that the Zionist regime is after finding a way to compensate for its ridiculous defeats from the people of Gaza and Lebanon’s Hezbollah,” Ahmadinejad told Syria’s Bashar Al Assad, referring to conflicts in 2006 and 2009.
“If the Zionist regime should repeat its mistakes and initiate a military operation, then it must be resisted with full force to put an end to it once and for all.”
Ahmadinejad, who has often predicted the imminent demise of the Jewish state, said Iran would remain on the side of regional nations including Syria, Lebanon and Palestine.
Existential threat
The Islamic Republic does not recognise Israel. Israel sees Iran’s nuclear programme as an existential threat and has not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the row.
Iran, the world’s fifth-largest crude exporter, says it would retaliate for any attack on its nuclear facilities which it says are part of a peaceful energy programme but which the West suspects are aimed at making bombs.
In a statement late last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was not planning any imminent attack on Lebanon.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said Damascus would be defeated and Al Assad would lose power in any future conflict.
——Agencies