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Page added on August 2, 2013
Iran’s Rouhani misquoted in remarks on Israel
Two days before his inauguration as Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani said on Friday that Israeli occupation of Palestinian land had inflicted a “wound” on the Muslim world, according to a segment of his remarks broadcast on Iran’s state-run Press TV.
An earlier report by Iran’s student news agency ISNA had quoted Rouhani as saying: “The Zionist regime is a wound that has sat on the body of the Muslim world for years and needs to be removed.”
ISNA later retracted the report, saying some domestic news agencies “including ISNA, had presented Mr. Rouhani as saying the Zionist regime is a wound on the body of the Muslim world that needs to be removed, and this was corrected”.
The original version of the report had echoed the fiercely anti-Israeli language of outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but was swiftly repudiated by Iranian state media, which said unidentified news agencies had distorted Rouhani’s remarks.
Press TV then broadcast an excerpt from an exchange between Rouhani and journalists at a rally to mark Iran’s annual Al Qods Day in support of the Palestinians.
“After all, in our region there’s been a wound for years on the body of the Muslim world under the shadow of the occupation of the holy land of Palestine and the beloved al-Qods (Jerusalem),” Rouhani said in the segment. ISNA later published that version of the comment.
Speaking before the ISNA retraction, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Rouhani’s remarks showed the reputedly moderate Iranian cleric was as hostile to Israel as Ahmadinejad, whose denial of the Holocaust and description of Israel as a “cancerous tumor” prompted international condemnation.
The United States and its allies suspect Iran of seeking a nuclear weapons capability. Tehran says its nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes, but Israel regards it as a threat to its existence and refuses to rule out military action.
With a more pragmatic president in Iran, Western countries may see a better chance for diplomacy to lead to a deal to curb Tehran’s uranium enrichment program and avoid any conflict.
“The true face of Rouhani has been revealed sooner than expected. Even if they hurry to deny his words – this is what the man thinks and this is the Iranian regime’s plan of action,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
Rouhani’s words “must awaken the world from the illusion in which part of it is placed since the Iranian elections”, he declared, saying Iran still aimed “to acquire nuclear weapons in order to threaten Israel, the Middle East and world peace”.
“A nation that threatens to destroy the state of Israel must not be allowed to have weapons of mass destruction,” he said.
Ahmadinejad addressed Israel on Qods Day in his last speech as president. “You planted wind in our region and you will reap the storm. I swear to God that a ferocious storm is coming and it will uproot the Zionist entity,” Iran’s state news agency IRNA quoted him as saying.
10 Comments on "Iran’s Rouhani misquoted in remarks on Israel"
Plantagenet on Fri, 2nd Aug 2013 6:10 pm
What does it matter? Iran’s nuclear weapons program is secretly continuing, no matter what is said in public.
Arthur on Fri, 2nd Aug 2013 6:34 pm
Well Plant, intelligence agencies say Iran does not build a bomb, but that should not keep us ftom roughing up Iran anyway, just in case, right?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/25/world/middleeast/us-agencies-see-no-move-by-iran-to-build-a-bomb.html?_r=0
GregT on Fri, 2nd Aug 2013 7:42 pm
Maybe those of us that are so interested in peace on Earth, should clean up our own acts first, before worrying about others doing, what we have already done.
Iran should have every right to protect itself, from the threat of others using nuclear weapons against it. Whether by coercion or military action.
peakyeast on Sat, 3rd Aug 2013 12:42 am
Iran has every right and every reason to want an atomic bomb.
The prime aggressor and terrorist state in the world is the USA from historical facts.
A funny thing is that the US seems to be intent on destroying it own population and financial health in order to make war on others…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/19/iraq-war-us-debt_n_2908909.html
Is this really the work of sane people? From over here across the pond it looks like the US government has gone absolutely APE – but okay – so has most of the world it seems..
BillT on Sat, 3rd Aug 2013 1:23 am
peaky, you are correct, but you also see who is providing the men to fight those insane wars, don’t you? NATO blood and wealth is also being drained. No middle class is going to be allowed to exist anywhere in the West.
jmm on Sat, 3rd Aug 2013 10:53 am
Hassan Rouhani,heeft hierin volkomen gelijk.
israel zit op dit punt helemaal fout.
en bedreigen hiermee de wereld vrede.
israel is gewoon grof ombeschoft met die ilegale nederzettingen.
DC on Sat, 3rd Aug 2013 10:56 am
Well, the pre-demonization of the new Iranian president is right on schedule. I mean, why wait for him to be sworn in when all the zionist media has to do is use the old classic-the misquote(ie lie).
Arthur on Sat, 3rd Aug 2013 8:06 pm
Washington to Iran: “We don’t know what you are saying, but don’t say it again!”
The worst thing that could happen to Washington would be the announcement from Tehran that Iran will completely abandon it’s civilean nuclear program. Because then any pretext to attack Iran would evaporate and a valuable ally of Russia and China would remain in place.
Iran is to Washington now, what Japan was to Washington in 1941: a pretext to get into conflict with a third, bigger party. Goal is world hegemony.
DC on Sat, 3rd Aug 2013 8:19 pm
Pretty much Arthur, if Iran said they were going to build solar trough plants instead of nukes, the US would accuse Iran of plotting to fry the world with a giant sun-ray. Its just like the so-called WMDs in IRaq. They never had em, and even agreed to talk to the amerikans. When that happened, the US corporate press made sure hardly knew Iraq was quite willing to talk about whatever horseshyt the US the shovelling that week. Of course, the official line, was, Iraq wasn’t willing to ‘talk’.
We all know how that ended…
Change Iran Now on Mon, 12th Aug 2013 7:54 am
Rouhani’s comment about the old would of Israel is an echo of Ahmadinejad’s extremist views and doesn’t bode well for Rouhani’s recent statements about a new moderation in Iran’s positions with the West. State media have tried to walk back his comments, but the underlying message is unmistakable; behind Rouhani stands Supreme Leader Khamenei and he remains firmly in control when calling the shots in regards to Iran’s foreign and nuclear policy. He has made it clear that offsetting Israel’s nuclear capability with one of their own is the top priority. So long as that remains Iran’s goal, sanctions will continue and Khamenei will continue to take it out on the ordinary Iranian citizen who is bearing the brunt of such folly.