Ahmadinejad: Foreign forces must leave
Photo: Reuters
Ahmadinejad: Uproot corrupt microbe Israel
Iranian president marks Army Day with speech saying 'Zionist regime on way to collapse'
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that Israel, the "main instigator of conflict" in the Middle East, was on its way to collapse and that regional powers wanted it uprooted.
In a speech marking annual Army Day, the president also reiterated his view that the presence of foreign forces is causing conflict in the region.
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"The Zionist regime is on its way to collapse," Ahmadinejad, known for his strong anti-Israel rhetoric, said in an address delivered near the shrine of Imam Khomeini, Iran's revolutionary leader.
"This is the will of the regional nations that after 60 odd years, the root of this corrupt microbe and the main reason for insecurity in the region be pulled out."
Ahmadinejad, who previously has angered Israel and Western countries for asserting that the Holocaust is a "myth", said that the "murderous" Jewish state was behind turmoil in the region.
"This regime is the main instigator of sedition and conflict in the region," the hardliner, flanked by Iran's top military brass, said from the podium.
"I want its supporters and creators to stop backing it and allow the regional nations and the Palestinians to settle things with them," he said without elaborating.
Ahmadinejad also demanded foreign forces quit the region.
"The presence of foreign forces is the cause of conflict in our region. They must leave," he said, adding that Iran's military might was enough of a "deterrent" for any "enemy" of the Islamic republic.
Iranian officials, including supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have regularly blamed the presence of US forces in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan for instability in the region.
