Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday that Israel was a "constant threat" and predicted that it was on the verge of "being eliminated."
His comments, which echoed his remark last year about "wiping Israel off the map," were made at a three-day conference on Palestine that has brought together Palestinian militant leaders and their supporters from Muslim countries.
"The Zionist regime is an injustice and by its very nature a permanent threat," Ahmadinejad said during his speech at the conference. "Whether you like it or not, the Zionist regime is on the road to being eliminated." He referred to Israel as a "rotten, dried tree" that would collapse in "one storm."
Ahmadinejad also said: "If there is serious doubt over the Holocaust, there is no doubt over the catastrophe and holocaust being faced by the Palestinians. Holocaust has been continuing in Palestine over the past 60 years."
Israel reacts
In Jerusalem, former Israeli premier Shimon Peres said yesterday that the UN must take Ahmadinejad to task over his latest implicit threats.
The influential senior statesman also predicted that the firebrand Iranian leader would meet the same fate as Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator overthrown in the 2003 US-led invasion.
"Iran is a member state of the United Nations that is threatening to destroy another member state of the United Nations," Peres said in remarks reported by public radio.
"The United Nations cannot but react. The world must unite against the Iranian president," he said.
Among the participants in the Iranian conference were Khaled Mashaal, a top figure in Hamas, and Ramadan Abdullah Shalah, the head of the militant group Islamic Jihad, which is supported by Iran. At the conference, Tehran urged other Muslim nations to join it in sending money to Hamas to make up for the withdrawal of donations by the US and the EU after the group's election victory and control of the Palestinian government.
Ahmad Zeidabadi, a political analyst in Tehran, said the conference seemed to be part of the Iranian government's strategy of building political support by appealing to its conservative base.
US eyes penalties
Meanwhile, the US is mulling various UN sanctions against Iran for its controversial nuclear program, including assets freezes and travel restrictions on its leaders, US officials said on Friday.
The US State Department said a meeting of major world powers next week in Moscow would discuss possible punitive measures against Iran if it does not scrap its suspected effort to build a nuclear bomb.
Nicholas Burns, the department's number three official, will try to nail down a consensus in talks on Tuesday with counterparts from European allies, Canada, Russia, China and Japan, spokesman Sean McCormack said.
"These meetings are intended to start to tee up decisions ... about diplomatic next steps, real actions that the Security Council and that the UN can take to increase the pressure on the Iranian regime." he said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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