Ahead of upcoming nuclear talks, Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad downplayed the threat Israel poses to Iran, comparing it to
an annoying bug.
"Israel is nothing more
than a mosquito which cannot see the broad horizon of the Iranian
nation," he said Saturday in northeastern Iran's Khorassan province,
according to the semi-official Fars news agency.
Ahmadinejad said
"regional states" were being duped into buying billions in arms from
"arrogant and imperial powers," driven in part by all the talk
surrounding a potential war involving Iran and Israel, the state-run
Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Such military purchases, he said,
are unnecessary because there is no war on the horizon between those
two nations.
The Iranian president
alluded to "rulers" who sold "their petrol" for $60 billion worth in
arms, though he did not mention by name either the purchasing or selling
country. Saudi Arabia is in the midst of a 20-year, $60 billion arms
deal with the United States, including nearly $30 billion for F-15
fighter jets announced late last year.
Ahmadinejad has long
questioned the existence of the Holocaust and, months after taking
office in October 2005, he participated in a lengthy protest called
"World Without Zionism" and has repeatedly derided Israel.
"With the force of God
behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States
and Zionism," he said then, according to another IRNA report.
On Saturday, while
seemingly backing away from the potential for an armed conflict,
Ahmadinejad hardly signaled that Iranians should or will embrace Israel.
He predicted Israel could fall if regional powers cut ties -- particularly by refusing to sell oil to Israelis.
Tensions have ramped up
in recent years over Iran's controversial nuclear program. Iran claims
it is being developed for peaceful means, while Western powers and
Israel say they think Iran is evading international inspections and
intent on developing nuclear weapons.
This sentiment has led to sweeping sanctions targeting Iran's economy, government and its leaders.
Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has been a particularly harsh, persistent critic of
Iran's leadership and nuclear program, with rumors circulating for
months that Israel may pre-emptively strike nuclear sites in Iran and
possibly set off a regional war.
And Iran's supreme
leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, last Friday "blasted the U.S.
war-mongering rhetoric against Iran," including President Barack Obama's
assertion that "all options are on the table." He added war "can be 10
times more harmful to" the United States than Iran, according to a Fars
report.
Even with all the
back-and-forth, there has been an apparent shift recently in the tone,
and manner, of dialogue between the two sides.
EU foreign policy chief
Catherine Ashton described nuclear talks last month in Istanbul, Turkey,
between international and Iranian diplomats on nuclear matters as
"constructive and useful."
And Iranian Foreign
Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said last week that he was optimistic that
there would be progress in continued talks with the United States,
Russia, China, Germany, France and Britain -- the so-called P5+1, Fars
reported.
Those parties are set to meet again May 23 in Baghdad.
Before then, discussions
in Vienna, Austria, will be held on Monday and Tuesday to address
"outstanding issues and remove ambiguities," Iran's envoy to the
International Atomic Energy Agency Ali-Asghar Soltanieh said, according
to Fars.
Source: CNN News