The Iranian Threat

The Iranian Threat

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    Overview:

    ​Iran has long been involved in the sponsoring and support of worldwide terror groups and has been officially implicated for its involvement in terrorist activities in several Western states. It provides aid in the form of weapons, training, and funding to Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups,  Hizbullah in Lebanon, Iraq-based militants, and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

    Iran's behavior over the past several years suggests that it is actively pursuing a nuclear weapons program. While denying these allegations, Iran's behavior has led to its being sanctioned by various international bodies, including the IAEA and the U.N Security Council.

    In the past decade, Iran has pursued all stages of developing nuclear weapons, including mining uranium, converting uranium to uranium hexafluoride, enriching uranium hexafluoride to obtain high-grade fissile material necessary for military use, and developing an implosion system needed for the detonation of nuclear devices.

    All this despite Iran's commitment to and ratification of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. In addition, Iran has developed weapons systems - primarily medium- and long-range ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear payloads to countries in the Middle East, Europe and soon North America.

    In addition, Iran continues to violate and disregard the human rights of its own citizens, and represses freedom of the press, freedom of association, freedom of religion, equality, and children's rights.

    Iran publically denies the Holocaust, and is the only country that openly calls for the annihilation of another state - the State of Israel.

    President Ahmadinejad actively endorses chaos, so as to hasten the re-emergence of the Hidden Imam and spread true Islamic rule worldwide. He believes that the Hidden Imam will return only following an apocalyptic war against Israel and the West.

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  • Israel/Holocaust denial

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    ​Destroying Israel:
    "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told them there was no place for the Jewish state in a future Middle East…. 'You want a new Middle East? We do too, but in the new Middle East ... there will be no trace of the American presence and the Zionists,'…. 
    President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Quds Day Address, 17 August 2012; 
     
    "The Israeli regime is a tool in the hands of Zionists to control the Middle-East and the entire world, Ahmadinejad stated. The Iranian president further stated that the International Quds Day is the day of unity among all human beings to remove the Zionist black stain from the human society."
    President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Quds Day Address, 17 August 2012; 
     
    "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ... said the very existence of the Zionist regime is an insult to the humankind and an affront to all world nations….The Iranian President further described the World Quds Day as an occasion for the unity of all human communities to wipe out this scarlet letter, meaning the Zionist regime, from the forehead of humanity." 
    President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Quds Day Address, 17 August 2012; 
     
    "Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei…. noted that liberating Palestine from the grip of Israel and its allies is a religious duty for all Muslims across the world."
    Ayatollah Sayyid Khamenei - Statement made during a meeting with hundreds of veterans from the Iraq-Iran war, 15 August; 
     
    "General Amir Ali Hajizadeh ….said if the Zionist hooligans embark on practicing their verbal threats, they will provide the best opportunity for the destruction of Israel because then the forged regime will be wiped out of the map and thrown into the trash bin of history for ever."
    Commander of the Aero-Space Forces of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Bridadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh - Interview with IRNA; 
     
    "He [Ahmadinejad] added: 'Anyone who loves freedom and justice must strive for the annihilation of the Zionist regime in order to pave the way for world justice and freedom.'"
    President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Speech to ambassadors from Islamic countries ahead of Quds Day, published on Ahmadinejad's website on 2 August 2012; 
     
    "Zionists understand only the language of force, Ayatollah Khatami reiterated. He further noted that the Zionist regime will meet destruction through unity in the Islamic world."
    Tehran's Provisional Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami - Address to a large congregation of worshippers on Tehran University campus, 17 August 2012; 
     
    "Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami underlined the importance of this year's International Quds Day (August 17, last Friday of the Ramadan) rallies, and said that 'The nations of the region, which have toppled dictators, also have the power to annihilate the Zionist regime (Israel).'"
    Tehran's Provisional Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami;
     
    "Khomeini's successor, Ayatollah Khamenei, said on Wednesday that the liberation of Palestine was top on the Islamic world agenda and predicted that 'the fake Zionist regime would soon fade away from geography and every inch of the occupied territories be returned to Palestinians.'
    Ayatollah Sayyid Khamenei -15 August; 
    DPA and the Associated Press, Haaretz; Published: 17 August 2012

    Delegitimization of Israel's existence:
    "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told an annual anti-Israel protest in Tehran on Friday that the Jewish state was a "cancerous tumour" that will soon be excised….'The Zionist regime and the Zionists are a cancerous tumour,' he said. 'The nations of the region will soon finish off the usurper Zionists in the Palestinian land.... A new Middle East will definitely be formed. With the grace of God and help of the nations, in the new Middle East there will be no trace of the Americans and Zionists,' he said."
    President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Quds Day Address, 17 August 2012; 
     
    "Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, said on Sunday that noble Quds and Palestine are the main issues of the world of Islam….Elsewhere in his address, the Ayatollah referred to ignorance of Muslim nations and governments for years and rule of the hegemonic powers over their fate as well as creation of the cancerous tumor of Zionism in heart of Muslim world….Zionism is a danger for entire humanity…." 
    Ayatollah Sayyid Khamenei - Address to officials and others, including ambassadors of Muslim states in Tehran, 19 August 2012; 
     
    "'The very existence of the Zionist regime is an insult to humankind and an affront to all world nations," the news agency's English-language report on the speech quoted him as saying. "Confronting Zionists will also pave the way for saving the whole humankind from exploitation, depravity and misery.'" 
    President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Quds Day Address; 17 August 2012; 

    Antisemitism:
    "Ahmadinejad said that a "horrible Zionist current" had been managing world affairs for "about 400 years." Repeating traditional anti-Semitic slurs, the Iranian president accused "Zionists" of controlling the world's media and financial systems…. 'Quds Day is not merely a strategic solution for the Palestinian problem, as it is to be viewed as a key for solving the world problems,' he said. 
    President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Speech to Ambassadors from Islamic countries ahead of Quds Day, published on Ahmadinejad's website on 2 August 2012; 
     
    He [Ahmadinejad] said Zionists, who think solely of power, wealth and dominance over others, have been inflicting very heavy damage and suffering on the whole humanity for over two thousand years especially during the past four centuries. Saying that the two world wars were designed by Zionists and carried out by the US to retain dominance on other countries, the president further noted that Zionists have been administrating affairs in the US since the very beginning of its establishment."
    President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Quds Day Address, 17 August 2012;