'Israel's a mad state led by mad people'

Iranian FM Mottaki tells Al Jazeera "Israel would never dare attack us."

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Mottaki has a fit 311 187 (photo credit: AP)
Mottaki has a fit 311 187
(photo credit: AP)
Israel is “a crazy nation led by crazy people,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki told Al Jazeera in an interview published Monday afternoon.
Mottaki said Iran did not take seriously Israel’s threats to attack its nuclear installations, but added that Teheran must be prepared for an Israeli onslaught.
He said “the Zionist regime is at its weakest point and holds the weakest positions for the past three years. This is the first time we see this regime facing two separate and important defeats and the seventh time Israeli forces tried to enter Lebanon and force war upon it.”
Mottaki said the recently published Goldstone Report, which alleges Israel may have committed war crimes during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza last winter, Israel “cannot start with more aggressive behavior.”
It was not clear which Israeli government positions Mottaki was referring to.
The foreign minister exclaimed that Israel will never attack since “they know what answer will come from Iran.”
He also rejected the possibility that the United States may act againstIran militarily: “The United States tried twice during the Bushadministration to attack in Afghanistan and in Iraq, but could notattain its goals, not in Iraq nor in Afghanistan. We see that theAmericans are facing the most difficult conditions in Afghanistan andbelieve [the US] has no real strategy there.”
Also on Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that thePalestinian people have united in their struggle against Israel. “I amquite confident that in the near future the those who compromise [thePalestinian-claimed territories] … will fade away from the globalscene,” Iran’s national news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.