Wed Jul 17, 2013 17:35:43
Iran president-elect Hassan Rohani has brushed off threats of military action against the Islamic republic by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"When some (the United States and Israel) say that all options are on the table and when a miserable regional regime (Israel) says such things, it makes you laugh," Rohani said in a meeting with war veterans in Tehran on Tuesday.
"Who are the Zionists to threaten us?" he asked, stressing that warnings of an Iranian retaliation had stopped Israel from carrying out its threats to launch strikes on Iran.
Netanyahu on Sunday renewed his threat to take unilateral military action to halt Iran's nuclear program, disparagingly referring to Rohani as "a wolf in sheep's clothing" who would "smile and build a bomb."
"We're closer than the United States. We're more vulnerable. And therefore, we'll have to address this question of how to stop Iran, perhaps before the United States does," Netanyahu said on CBS News's "Face the Nation." "They're edging up to the red line. They haven't crossed it yet," the Israeli premier said.
The US, Israel, and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.
Tehran has categorically rejected the accusation, arguing that as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it is entitled to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
HH/HH
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