Iranian official: Countdown to Israel's destruction has begun

Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Hadad has warned that the "countdown to Israel's destruction has begun," in an interview published Thursday in an Iranian newspaper.Hadad's comment was one of a number of scathing remarks made by Iranian officials regarding Israel this week, a trend apparently escalated by the assassination of Hezbollah's second-in-command Imad Mugniyah earlier this month.Also Thursday, an adviser to Iran's most powerful figure said Mughniyah's assassination would accelerate Israel's demise at the hands of outraged followers of the Shi'ite Lebanese group.Yahya Rahim Safavi, a former commander-in-chief of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, Mughniyah's killing in a car bomb in the Syrian capital Damascus had angered thousands of young members of Iran-backed Hezbollah."With such anger, the definite death of Israel will arrive sooner," Rahim Safavi told the official IRNA news agency.Rahim Safavi was appointed as a military adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say in all state matters.Western analysts say the Revolutionary Guards, an ideological wing of Iran's armed forces, has given military support to Hezbollah. Tehran denies this, saying it only provides moral backing to the Lebanese group. Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday called Israel a "filthy germ" and "savage beast" established by Western states in their bid to dominate Middle East nations.UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon promised Wednesday to respond "firmly" to Ahmadinejad's verbal attacks on Israel, which he called "intolerable."Ban made the promise in a meeting with Israel's Ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman, who requested the meeting with the UN chief.Ahmadinejad's comments came just days after a top commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard called Israel a "cancerous germ" which would be wiped out by Hezbollah. Guards commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari was quoted by the Fars News Agency on Monday as saying: "In the near future, we will witness the destruction of the cancerous germ of Israel by the powerful and competent hands of the Hezbollah combatants."Jafari made the remark in a letter to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, offering condolences after the killing of terrorist mastermind Imad Mughniyah, which Iran has blamed on Israel.The Foreign Ministry sent a letter of protest to the United Nations over Jafari's remarks, Army Radio reported earlier this week.Last month, Ahmadinejad called on the West to acknowledge Israel's "imminent collapse" and to "stop supporting the Zionists, as their regime reached its final stage.""Accept that the life of Zionists will sooner or later come to an end," the Iranian president said in a televised speech.He added, "What we have right now is the last chapter of Israeli atrocities which the Palestinians and regional nations will confront and eventually turn in Palestine's favor."

By Yossi Melman

http://www.haaretz.com/

As in the days of Noah....