In case you ever wondered whether Iran truly wants to exterminate Israel, something reiterated time and again by Israeli officials — including most recently Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his address to Congress last week — the Atlantic compiled a must-see list of quotes from over the past decade and a half from top Iranian officials and proxies who pretty consistently expressed exactly that.
Among the more vivid quotes on the Atlantic's list, from Iran and from the leader of Hezbollah, which Iran supports:
Mohammad Khatami, the former president of Iran: “If we abide by real legal laws, we should mobilize the whole Islamic world for a sharp confrontation with the Zionist regime … if we abide by the Quran, all of us should mobilize to kill.” (2000) [...]Hassan Nasrallah, a leader of Hezbollah: “If they [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.” (2002) [...]
Mohammad Hassan Rahimian, Khamenei’s representative to the Moustazafan Foundation: “We have manufactured missiles that allow us, when necessary to replace [sic] Israel in its entirety with a big holocaust.” (2010) [...]
[Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei: “The Zionist regime is a cancerous tumor and it will be removed.” (2012)
Apropos of the missiles mentioned by Rahimian, Iran unveiled a new long-range missile Sunday, just days after Secretary of State John Kerry wrapped up another round of negotiations with Iran’s foreign minister over its controversial nuclear program.
Israeli officials have expressed concern that should Iran obtain a nuclear weapon, not only would Israel’s security be threatened, but also that of the U.S. were Iran able to deliver a doomsday weapon via a long-range surface-to-surface cruise missile.
See the entire list at the Atlantic.
