Posted on 07/16/2006 10:22:00 AM PDT by NYer
Iran warned its arch-enemy Israel of "unimaginable losses" if it attacks Syria and vowed that it was standing by the Syrian people.
"We hope the Zionist regime does not make the mistake of attacking Syria, because extending the front would definitely make the Zionist regime face unimaginable losses," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.
"Iran is standing by the Syrian people," he said of the Islamic republic's sole regional ally.
"We have offered and will offer Syria and Lebanon spiritual and humanitarian support," Asefi insisted, reiterating Iran's denial that it is providing military and financial assistance to the Hezbollah movement.
The Israeli army has said Hezbollah militants had used an Iranian-built radar-guided anti-ship missile in an attack on Friday on an Israeli warship off Lebanon's coast.
The attack marked the Lebanese militia's first successful strike on an Israeli warship, dealing an unprecedented blow to the Jewish state's military. One Israeli sailor was killed and three more were missing, feared dead.
An Israeli military intelligence official has also alleged that around 100 members of Iran's powerful ideological army the elite Revolutionary Guards were in Lebanon, acting as military advisors to Hezbollah.
Iran is a major backer of Hezbollah, but regularly insists that it only gives "moral support" to the Shiite movement.
"We have no Guards there. It is not true that we have sent missiles. Hezbollah is capable enough. The Zionist regime is under pressure," Asefi said, repeating Iran's denial of any connection to the attack.
He also hit out at the United States after President George W. Bush said Israel had "every right to defend itself".
"The United States has had a destructive role by vetoing resolutions and hence encouraging the Israeli crimes," Asefi said, referring to Washington's use of its veto in the UN Security Council Thursday to block a resolution calling for a halt to an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
"The United States should reconsider its policies and correct its wrong attitude of supporting the Zionist regime."
On Friday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boasted that Israel was not powerful enough to take on Iran and also warned against an attack against Syria.
"Thanks be to God, despite its criminal and savage nature, the Zionist regime and its supporters in the West do not have the power to look in the same way towards Iran," the fiercely anti-Israeli president said.
"If Israel commits another act of idiocy and aggresses Syria, this will be the same as an aggression against the entire Islamic world and it will receive a stinging response," Ahmadinejad said in a telephone conversation with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad.
The hardline president, who has calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map" or moved as far away as Alaska, has also compared Israel's military strikes on Gaza and Lebanon to tactics used by Nazi Germany's leader Adolf Hitler.
"Their methods resemble Hitler's. When Hitler wanted to launch an attack, he came up with a pretext," Ahmadinejad said Saturday.
"Zionists say they are Hitler's victims, but they have the same nature as Hitler," said Ahmadinejad, who has previously described the Holocaust of six million Jews in wartime Europe as "a myth."
"We have two solutions for the crisis. One of them, which is a logical one, is that as you (Western nations) who imposed this regime by fabricating stories, you put an end to it and take it with you," he said.
Ahmadinejad's second solution was to have a referendum in which only the "true Palestinians," decide their fate.
Ping!
We need to consider an immediate withdrawal of troops in iraq and redeploy them in Tehran.
forget the withdrawal part. How bout just flying over a few b-52's over tehran
Implement the Murtha plan, huh? LOL.
Well, if the damages can't even be imagined anyway, then don't atttempt to worry about them, just proceed.
Place anything statement here....
Maybe some B-2s too.
Still my favorite bomber.
I detect a buckling of the knees in tehran. Getting a little too hot for you, spawn of the satanic khomeini? You haven't felt anything, yet.
— The Maltese Falcon.
Wouldn't those 'unimaginable losses' be in Iran?
Well .. God has another opinion:
Isaiah 17:1 - "The burden of Damascus. It has been taken away from being a city, it has become a ruinous heap."
Geeeeeee .. I wonder what would do that ..??
You know, I don't believe in reincarnation, but this Iranian 'president' and his cohorts and their channeling of Hitler and his buddies is almost changing my mind...
We *must* stand with Israel. We must.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
Israel to Iran, "Bring it on, b!tch!"
Can't you just feel the love?
Iran, you've been cruisin for a bruisin for a long long time.
And if our government does, they will be among those destroyed. GOD. the One GOD will destroy all those against Israel.
Muslims are the masters of hyperbole and bellicosity. It's a truly childish mentality that openly reveals their weakness. As much as Iran despises Israel they surely would be attacking her now if they had the real capability; but they don't dare do anything against her beyond supplying the terrorists with armaments.
You'd think the Iranians would realize that to everyone who counts, all this brave talk is really a confession of weakness.
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