Israel alone

This week, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad again attended the United Nations in New York. Again, his visit was laced with controversy. He denounced the state of Israel as a ‘fake regime’, claimed that a threat of an Israeli strike on Iran’s facilities was ‘bluffing’, yet warned of Iranian retaliation should Israel carry out such a strike. Israel will be a blip in the region’s history, he predicted, causing ‘minimal disturbances’ before being ‘eliminated’. And should Israel try to pre-empt this elimination, then Tehran would hold the United States responsible.

It is hard to know what more Ahmadinejad needs to do to be taken seriously. For seven years, he has been talking about taking Israel ‘off the map’. The head of the Iranian military said recently that Iran’s ‘cause’ was ‘the full annihilation of Israel’ and the ayatollahs are arming themselves accordingly. A recent report by the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed what the world already knew: that despite sanctions and the warnings of all international bodies, Iran is continuing to pursue and produce the components necessary for a nuclear arsenal.