Iranian president calls Israel 'fake regime'

Accipiter22

Banned
Feb 11, 2005
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http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/04/24/iran.nuclear/index.html


EHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday again criticized Israel and called on Jews to leave the Mideast and "return to their fatherlands" in Europe.

"We say that this fake regime [Israel] cannot ... logically continue to live," he said, according to a translator for The Associated Press.

Ahmadinejad, in a wide-ranging news conference that included international journalists for only the second time in his short term, said anti-Semitism drove Jews out of Europe into Israel.

"We believe that Jews like any other human beings have the right to live in happiness and prosperity and to benefit from security," he said, according to a CNN translator. "Allow them to go back to their own fatherlands and countries."

According to Reuters, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Monday called on world powers to act on Iran soon.

"Of all the threats we face, Iran is the biggest. The world must not wait. It must do everything necessary on a diplomatic level in order to stop its nuclear activity," Mofaz told a conference on Iran at Tel Aviv University, Reuters reported.

"Since Hitler we have not faced such a threat." (Full story)

The Iranian president also addressed concerns about his nation's nuclear program, which appears headed toward a showdown with the U.N. Security Council.

"Our activity is quite transparent," he said. "We are not like others, which work in shadows. Everything is out in the open, and this in itself is a witness to the fact that we are fully peaceful."

His comments came a day after Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said its nuclear program cannot be stopped.

"We are determined not to give up our rights to nuclear energy, and suspension of relevant activities is not on our agenda," Hamid-Reza Asefi said. "The issue is irreversible."

Iran maintains its nuclear research is for a future civilian energy program, but the United States and other Western countries contend that the work is a guise to hide the development of nuclear weapons. (Watch Iran defend its right to nuclear research -- 1:37)

Iran declared April 11 that it had produced enriched uranium in concentrations capable of running a nuclear power plant, defying the Security Council's call to suspend uranium enrichment activities.

The Security Council has given Iran until April 28 to halt the program and has asked International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei to report back by then.

Asefi, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, said Western nations should wait for the publication of that report before trying to exert any more pressure on Iran to stop its nuclear research.

IAEA officials have said they would press Iran about Ahmadinejad's recent assertion that Iran is "now under the process of research and testing" of P-2 uranium-enrichment centrifuge technology.

With their strong rotors, P-2 centrifuges enrich uranium faster and could help Iranian scientists construct a nuclear weapon much sooner than the P-1 centrifuges they have shown to international inspectors.

U.S. intelligence officials have estimated, based on the assumption that Iran has only P-1 centrifuges, that the country is five to 10 years away from making a nuclear weapon.

But the chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee said Sunday that the United States doesn't really know how close Iran is to developing such a weapon.

"We've got a long way to go in rebuilding our intelligence community," Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Michigan, told "Fox News Sunday."

"We don't have all of the information that we would like to have."

Rep. Jane Harman of California, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, concurred that "our intelligence is thin."

"This is not a time to be saber rattling in our government, talking about the military option," Harman told Fox.

"Just the fact that the Iranian government is making a lot of noise doesn't prove their capability. Remember, the Iraqi government made a lot of noise, and they had nothing."

U.S. officials have said they are pursuing a diplomatic resolution to the standoff with Iran, though President Bush has said no option is off the table.

Reporters asked Bush last week if that included the possibility of a nuclear strike.

"All options are on the table," Bush replied. "We want to solve this issue diplomatically, and we're working hard to do so."

Bush earlier this month referred to media coverage as "wild speculation" after The New Yorker magazine reported that the administration was considering a tactical nuclear strike to take out Iran's atomic program.

In part due to fears of supply disruptions in Iran, oil smashed through record highs last week, cruising past $75 a barrel. (Full storyexternal link)
U.S. to Russia: Freeze arms sales

The United States has urged Russia and other countries to stop the sale of arms and other sensitive technology to Iran in an effort to pressure Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

"It's time for countries to use their leverage against Iran," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said Friday. "We think it's very important that countries like Russia freeze any arms sales planned for Iran."

In recent weeks, the United States has stepped up pressure on Moscow to stop its planned sale of surface-to-air missiles to Iran.

"We hope and we trust that that deal will not go forward," Burns said after returning from Moscow, where he met with officials from Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany to coordinate a diplomatic strategy for dealing with Iran.

Senior officials from the permanent members of the Security Council met and failed to agree on imposing sanctions against Iran.

As part of what Burns said would be an intensified period of diplomacy on Iran, the group will meet again on May 2 in Paris, France.

The G-8 group of industrialized countries also is expected to focus on the Iran issue at its July summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, Burns said.
 

Steeplerot

Lifer
Mar 29, 2004
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Now cue the pro-iranian war crowd saying he means the people of israel not the reckless zionist regime itself.
 

imported_Shivetya

Platinum Member
Jul 7, 2005
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Originally posted by: Steeplerot
Now cue the pro-iranian war crowd saying he means the people of israel not the reckless zionist regime itself.

Well I do believe he would tolerate a Jew in his presence, but only if the Jew's neck was under his boot.

Anyone who is foolish enough to believe he gives one wit about Jewish civilians is smoking crack. The whole placing the blame on the "zionist regime" is just following the standard model of excusing your actions because of someone else.

 

5150Joker

Diamond Member
Feb 6, 2002
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It doesn't matter what sort of statements he makes and he knows it. The US/Israel wouldn't let Iran have nuclear weapons even if Ahmadinjad made a statement proclaiming his love for Israel.
 

Banzai042

Senior member
Jul 25, 2005
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called for the dissolution of Israel, saying that the country is an artificial state and Jews should return to their "fatherlands" in Europe.

Sounds to me like he has a problem with jews living in the ME at all, or am I misreading that?
 

5150Joker

Diamond Member
Feb 6, 2002
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Originally posted by: Banzai042
called for the dissolution of Israel, saying that the country is an artificial state and Jews should return to their "fatherlands" in Europe.

Sounds to me like he has a problem with jews living in the ME at all, or am I misreading that?


No he just has a problem with Israeli Jews. There's plenty of Jews that live in Iran that he doesn't seem to have a problem with. This guy is all hot air anyway and he's just trying to rattle the international community a bit but will eventually back down and let Russia run the show.
 

smack Down

Diamond Member
Sep 10, 2005
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Ahh poor israel does everything it can to piss of neighbors and then crys when no one there like her.
 

lozina

Lifer
Sep 10, 2001
11,709
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The man's a nutcase and the only reason he has support in his country is because he is taking the stance that Iran is a sovereign nation who is entitled to nuclear power if it damn pleases. This is what most of the people in Iran support him over, but most of them roll their eyes when he makes idiotic statements about Israel.

 

Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
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Add this to the list of clues as to what this program is about and where it is heading.
All I have to say is we better get our economy transformed onto another energy source within the next 5-10 years because if this guy is allowed to have a nuke we will wake up to a nuclear inferno in the ME and oil costing way too much to afford.

 

Meuge

Banned
Nov 27, 2005
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Originally posted by: smack Down
Ahh poor israel does everything it can to piss of neighbors and then crys when no one there like her.
Yeah, they're really upset that Israel defends itself. It would be much better if Israelis just let their neighbors slaughter them all. :roll:
 

magomago

Lifer
Sep 28, 2002
10,973
14
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Originally posted by: Banzai042
called for the dissolution of Israel, saying that the country is an artificial state and Jews should return to their "fatherlands" in Europe.

Sounds to me like he has a problem with jews living in the ME at all, or am I misreading that?


I'm not sure sure
"We believe that Jews like any other human beings have the right to live in happiness and prosperity and to benefit from security," he said, according to a CNN translator. "Allow them to go back to their own fatherlands and countries."
Where did he mention Europe? Also, that would mean QUITE a bit of Jews would go back to random places in the Middle East.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_exodus_from_Arab_lands
According to Wikipedia we are looking at something close to a million who left. Obviously those people wouldn't get going to the Europe ;)

As for the situation...Israel is here to stay. Might as well work for the best situation for the Palestinians. You'll have people equate his words with the Palestinians and rationalize oppressing them even more...and that isn't something that is good
 

Aimster

Lifer
Jan 5, 2003
16,129
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I think the Iranian president should stop caring about Arabs who wanted Iranians dead during the Iran-Iraq War.

Why the hell would anyone support those who went to the street yelling for your destruction?

He should side with Israel. Israel's enemies were always Iran's enemies.

but he's too busy praying 5x a day that he doesn't know any better.
 

firewall

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 2001
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Originally posted by: Aimster
but he's too busy praying 5x a day that he doesn't know any better.

Careful Aimster. Equating being a steadfast person who prays 5 times a day to being a dumb and a fool is foolish and ignorant in and of itself. Millions of Muslims pray 5 times daily but don't go spouting about like Ahmadejin.