Recent Israeli threats against Iran’s nuclear sites could indicate that the Israelis are frustrated over their failure to muster international pressure on the Islamic Republic, although the Zionist regime has succeeded over the years in gaining Western support. Is it losing its power? Iranian leaders think it is.
According to a report in the Tehran Times, former Iranian President AKBAR HASHEMI RAFSANJANI recently said that the Zionist regime’s days are numbered. “Political conditions in both Palestine and the region are improving, and the Zionist regime has begun to decline,” he said in a meeting with top HAMAS leader Khaled Meshal. Rafsanjani attributed the weakness of the Zionist regime to the Palestinian resistance that led to the ISRAEL'S UNILATERAL WITHDRAWAL from the Gaza Strip last September, which caused deep political divisions in the Jewish state. “The Palestinians’ resistance, high morale, and hopefulness have been quite effective in creating the current situation of the Zionist regime,” he said.
For his part, Meshal said that Zionist regime lost its power, stressing that all Palestinian resistance groups are determined to gain the rights of the Palestinian people. He also said that his movement will step up its attacks on Israel if it attacks Iran. "Just as Islamic Iran defends the rights of the Palestinians, we defend the rights of Islamic Iran. We are part of a united front against the enemies of Islam," he said. Meshaal also hailed Iranian President MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD for his "courageous" comments about Israel.
Ahmadinejad has been strongly criticized by Israel and Western states for saying last week that the Nazi Holocaust was "a myth". The Iranian leader also called for Europe or North America to host a Jewish state, not the Middle East. “If the massacre of the Jews in Europe is true and used as an excuse to support Zionists, why should the Palestinians pay the price?” he said.
One of the most important issues is the philosophy upon which the Zionist regime is established, which should not be overlooked since global arrogance tries to dominate the Islamic world, Ahmadinejad said, according to the Iranian news agency IRNA. “The world is on the verge of change, and more than before we can hear the sound of this present unstable order breaking down," he said.
The Iranian comments came at a time when the United States and Israel are seeking the referral of Iran’s nuclear case to the UN Security Council. Tehran denies claims that it is working on a secret atomic program, insisting that its NUCLEAR plans are strictly for the peaceful generation of electricity.
A report in the London Times last week quoted some Israeli Defense officials as saying that Ariel Sharon’s government gave orders to the army to ready plans for a possible military strike against the Islamic republic targeting its nuclear facilities by the end of March 2006.
In response, Iran’s Defense Minister Mustafa Mohammad Najjar also vowed on Friday that his country’s reaction to any Israeli attack would be "swift and destructive”. Najjar also said that "the doomed fate of (Iraqi ex-president) Saddam (Hussein) must be a lesson for officials of the usurping Zionist regime." The Iranian Foreign Minister Hamid Reza Asefi also said that Israel’s failure to force Iran to abandon its nuclear program indicate that there is a “deep crisis in the Zionist regime”.
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