Ahmadinejad: 'Don't attack Gaza'

Says IDF actions would cause "explosion" in Islamic world, targeting the West.

ahmadinejad car 298.88 (photo credit: Associated Press)
ahmadinejad car 298.88
(photo credit: Associated Press)
Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned on Friday that continued Israeli strikes against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip could lead to an "explosion" in the Islamic world that would target Israel and its supporters in the West. Again, Ahmadinejad questioned Israel's right to exist. "This is a fake regime ... it won't be able to survive. I think the only way [forward] is that those who created it (the West), take it away themselves," the president told a rally in Teheran in support of Palestinians. Twenty-four Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed in fighting since the Israeli army began invading northern Gaza on Thursday. Ahmadinejad, who last year called for Israel to be "wiped off the map," has repeatedly voiced fiery rhetoric against the Jewish state. The Islamic republic's president joined thousands of demonstrators in the capital on Friday to condemn the Israeli strikes, and said Israel's Western supporters could be the targets of revenge by Muslims. "They should not let things reach a point where an explosion occurs in the Islamic world," he said. "If an explosion occurs, then it won't be limited to geographical boundaries. It will also burn all those who created [Israel] over the past 60 years," he said, implicitly referring to the United States and other Western nations who support Israel.