Ahmadinejad's new Israel attack

2008-08-23 21:05

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad renewed his verbal attacks on arch-foe Israel on Saturday, accusing it of dragging the world into turmoil and predicting its demise.

"About 2 000 organised Zionists and 7 000 to 8 000 agents of Zionism have dragged the world into turmoil," Ahmadinejad told a rally in the central Iranian city of Arak carried live on state television.

He said that if the West does not restrain Zionism, "the powerful hand of the nations will clean these sources of corruption from the face of the earth", without specifying which nations.

Iran does not recognise the Jewish state and Ahmadinejad has drawn international condemnation by repeatedly saying since his election in 2005 that Israel is doomed to disappear.

Last month Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie triggered controversy and calls for his resignation when he said Iranians are "friends with Israelis".

Israel, the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power, accuses Iran of seeking atomic weapons and wants tougher sanctions against the Islamic republic to make it halt its controversial nuclear programme.

Iran insists that its nuclear ambitions are purely peaceful and aimed at meeting the country's growing energy needs.

- AFP