Iranian MP: We need nuclear bomb 'to put Israel in its place'

Iranian parliament representative denies Iran is aspiring to obtain atomic weapons before news outlet removes comments.

By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON
Ayatollahs centrifuge 390 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Ayatollahs centrifuge 390
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Iranian parliament representative Muhammad Nabavian said that Iran needs a nuclear bomb because of Israel.
“We don’t aspire to obtain a nuclear bomb, but it is necessary so we can put Israel in its place,” Nabavian said in a speech given on Friday and quoted by MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute).
The Iranian Tasnim News Agency website, which first quoted Nabavian, later removed the comment about Iran needing a nuclear bomb, according to the MEMRI report.
Nabavian also revealed statements made to the Iranian parliament by President Hassan Rouhani, demonstrating that the US administration was pressing hard for a meeting with him.
“After I won the elections, [US President Barack] Obama relayed a message to me, [even] before [my September 2013] visit to New York.
The White House contacted me five times seeking a meeting. Now the question must be asked: Why does this superpower insist on meeting Iran’s president… while calling us a third-world [country]?” said Rouhani.
Rouhani then said, “During my journey to New York, I arrived at the hotel on Monday night and again they contacted me from the White House. I assembled the delegation accompanying me and we decided not to meet [with Obama].”
“They said to me, ‘Why did you humiliate Obama and America?’ and I said there was no humiliation. Here I recalled the words of the imam [Khomeini], who said that one must humiliate the infidel leaders,” said Rouhani according to the report.