From: GYGYGGYGYGYGYGYGYGYGY@HVVVVV.COM   
      
   RAFSANJANI SAYS MUSLIMS SHOULD USE NUCLEAR WEAPON AGAINST ISRAEL   
   TEHRAN 14 Dec. (IPS) One of Iran's most influential ruling cleric called   
   Friday on the Muslim states to use nuclear weapon against Israel, assuring   
   them that while such an attack would annihilate Israel, it would cost them   
   "damages only".   
   "If a day comes when the world of Islam is duly equipped with the arms   
   Israel has in possession, the strategy of colonialism would face a stalemate   
   because application of an atomic bomb would not leave any thing in Israel   
   but the same thing would just produce damages in the Muslim world",   
   Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani told the crowd at the traditional   
   Friday prayers in Tehran.   
   Analysts said not only Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani's speech was the strongest   
   against Israel, but also this is the first time that a prominent leader of   
   the Islamic Republic openly suggests the use of nuclear weapon against the   
   Jewish State.   
   "It seems that Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani is forgetting that due to the present   
   intertwinement of Israel and Palestine, the destruction of the Jewish State   
   would also means the mass killing of Palestinian population as well",   
   observed one Iranian commentator.   
   While Israel is believed to possess between 100 to 200 nuclear war heads,   
   the Islamic Republic and Iraq are known to be working hard to produce their   
   own atomic weapons with help from Russia and North Korea, Pakistan, also a   
   Muslim state, has already a certain number of nuclear bomb.   
   In a lengthy speech to mark the so-called "International Qods (Jerusalem)   
   Day" celebrated in Iran only, Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani, who, as the Chairman   
   of the Assembly to Discern the Interests of the State, is the Islamic   
   Republic's number two man after Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, said since Israel   
   was an emanation of Western colonialism therefore "in future it will be the   
   interests of colonialism that will determine existence or non-existence of   
   Israel".   
   Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani made the unprecedented threat as, following new   
   suicide operations inside Israel and against Israeli settlements by   
   Palestinian extremists in PA-controlled zones, responded by Israel's   
   heaviest bombarding of Palestinian cities, police, communication and   
   radio-television installations, killing and wounding more than 200 people on   
   both sides, resulted in the halting of all contacts between Israel and the   
   PA of Mr. Yaser Arafat.   
   He said since Israel is the product of Western colonialism, "the continued   
   existence of Israel depends on interests of arrogance and colonialism and as   
   long as the base is helpful for colonialism, it is going to keep it.   
   Hashemi-Rafsanjani advised Western states not to pin their hopes on Israel's   
   violence because it will be "very dangerous".   
   "We are not willing to see security in the world is harmed", he said,   
   warning against the "eruption of the Third World War.   
   "War of the pious and martyrdom seeking forces against peaks of colonialism   
   will be highly dangerous and might fan flames of the World War III", the   
   former Iranian president said, backing firmly suicide operations against   
   Israel.   
   Quoted by the official news agency IRNA, Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani said   
   weakening of Palestinian Jihad is "unlikely", as the Palestinians have come   
   to the conclusion that talks would be effective only "in light of struggle   
   and self-sacrifice- the two key elements that gave way to beginning of the   
   second Intifada".   
   Iranian analysts and commentators outside Iran immediately reacted to Mr.   
   Hashemi-Rafsanjani's statement, expressing fear that it might trigger an   
   international backlash against Iran itself, giving Israel, the United States   
   and other Western and even Arab nations to further isolate Iran as a source   
   of threat to regional security.   
   "Jews shall expect to be once again scattered and wandering around the globe   
   the day when this appendix is extracted from the region and the Muslim   
   world", Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani warned, blaming on the United States and   
   Britain the "creation of the fabricated entity" in the heart of Arab and   
   Muslim world.   
   "The man who considers himself as the most able politician in the Islamic   
   Republic utters such nonsense and empty threats at a very time that the hard   
   line and extremist government of Israel under Mr. Ariel Sharon is looking   
   for justification of its repressive policy against Palestinians", said Mr.   
   Ahmad Salamatian, a veteran political analyst based in Paris.   
   "At a time that the right wing Israeli government is claiming that the very   
   existence of Israel and the Jews are threatened and uses this pretext as an   
   instrument to advance its policy of repression in Palestine, such statements   
   and ushering such dangerous menaces by one of Iran's top officials is   
   nothing but bringing water to Israel's propaganda mill, providing it with   
   more justifications explaining its present maximalist policy", he told the   
   Persian service of Radio France Internationale.   
   Though Mr. Salamatian is of the opinion that Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani's words   
   are part of both his own show and the ongoing internal tensions between   
   conservatives and reformers, however, he also agrees with other Iranian   
   analysts that his "untimely" menace could backfire, becoming a justification   
   for threats against Iran, at a time that the United States and its allies   
   are determined to continue the fight against international terrorism.   
   "One of Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani's main characteristics in Iranian politics   
   during the past twenty years is that in order to preserve his own position,   
   he is ready to set fire to all the Caesareas for one handkerchief,   
   including, in the present case, providing Israel with enough pretext to   
   attack Iran", he noted, adding: "for the time being and what is important   
   for Mr. Sharon is that this kind of statements are open invitation for more   
   violence, an encouragement to extremists on either side of the   
   Israel-Palestine conflict".   
   Observing that despite the fact that Israel is believed to have more than   
   one hundred atomic warheads and the necessary technology to transport them   
   to the very heart of Iran and elsewhere, but no Israeli official nor any   
   newspaper have ever raised the slightest possibility of an atomic threat,   
   "even in defence of their very existence", Mr. Salamatian wondered the   
   reasons behind Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani's declaration, which he said should be   
   taken seriously "considering the rank of the man who pronounced it". ENDS   
   RAFSANJANI NUKE THREATS 141201   
      
   http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2001/dec_2001/rafsanjani_nuke_thr   
   eats_141201.htm   
      
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