Iranians can ‘wipe out’ Israel if attacked: Ahmadinejad

The Iranian people are ready to march on Israel to “wipe it out” if the Jewish state attacks the Islamic republic, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in statements published Wednesday by Egypt’s state news agency. “The people of Iran are ready to march on Israel to wipe it out if it launches into an adventure against Tehran” and attacks the country, the Iranian president told Egyptian newspaper editors, according to excerpts published by MENA. “The Zionists… hope to aggress Iran and attack it, but they are very afraid of the Iranian reaction and of the consequences of such an attack,” he said in the Arabic transcription of the comments made during a visit to Egypt. “Our defence forces are capable of dissuading any aggressor and making him regret his act,” Ahmadinejad said.

Shoe hurled at Ahmedinejad in Egypt

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad faced a shoe-hurling episode in Egypt on Wednesday, but the hurler never got any close to hitting his target. Egypt’s security arrested four men who were protesting outside a Cairo mosque, where the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was praying. The men, including a Syrian, belong to the ultra-conservative Sunni Salafist movement. One man threw a shoe at Ahmadinejad, a Shia, who was never in any danger. The Al-Hussein Mosque is revered by Shia Muslims, who are widely disliked by conservative Sunni Muslims, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi was previously a member of the Brotherhood. Many Sunni Muslim groups have denounced the Iranian president’s visit to Cairo and have called on Egypt’s government to prevent Ahmadinejad from visiting any religious sites that are significant to Shia Muslims.