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Ahmadinejad says Israel to vanish with or without Iran

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-04 09:20

Rome - The state of Israel will cease to exist with or without the involvement of Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday, and Israel branded Iran a "neighborhood bully" that must be met with firmness.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attends a U.N. crisis summit on rising food prices at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome June 3, 2008. [Agencies]

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told a closed door meeting of Israeli lawmakers in Jerusalem that the international community must take decisive action on Iran and reiterated that military action was an option.

On Monday, Ahmadinejad said in Tehran that the "satanic power" of the United States faced destruction and that the Jewish state would soon disappear from the map, a theme he returned to on Tuesday.

"This will happen whether we are involved in it or not," he told a news conference at a UN food summit in Rome, adding that Israel was "doomed to go."

At a closed-door meeting of the Israeli parliament's security and foreign affairs committee in Jerusalem, Livni said the international community must send a strong signal to nations in the Middle East that are undecided on which camp to join.

"These are decisive days and the inability to build an international consensus against Iran will be interpreted in our region as weakness," an official present at the meeting quoted Livni as saying.

"The military option needs to be kept on the table. Making clear the option is on the table may in the future mean it is less likely to be used," she said. Livni referred to Iran as the "neighborhood bully."

No other details of her comments were available.