Iranians support president's anti-Israel remarks
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-29 10:28

In an exclusive interview with the official IRNA news agency, Ahmadinejad slammed the Israeli policy as ambitious, saying "they (the Israelis) are free to say but their words lack any credit.

They are rude, falsely thinking that the whole world should be subordinate to them."

"The oppressed Palestinians are martyred by Zionists, their properties are looted, their houses are bombarded and they are assassinated, but the Zionists expect that no one should object them," Ahmadinejad stressed.

Later in the day, Rafsanjani, who took the turn of leading the Friday prayer in Tehran, warned in his sermon that Israel was "fuelling the flames of Islamic resistance in Palestine and throughout world".

Rafsanjani praised the Palestinians as the most oppressed people who survived "numerous conspiracies" of Israel and tolerated massive pressure, saying that brave resistance of the Palestinians was also the "cornerstone of great movements of the Islamic world".

However, Rafsanjani focused his bombardment on the Israeli government, stressing that the main concern of Tehran was "the existence of the Zionist regime" and Iranians indeed respected and had no problems with "the pious and real Jews".

Iran holds a sympathetic attitude towards the fight for independence of the Palestinians and refuses to acknowledge the Israeli state, terming the Israeli government as enemy of the whole Islamic world.