WarSclerotic

Israeli leaders have repeatedly sounded alarms over Iran’s atomic ambitions, pointing at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s calls for the Jewish state to be “wiped off the map”. Here is a timeline of statements between the two countries:

Oct. 2005 – President Ahmadinejad says that Israel should be “wiped off the map”, the official IRNA news agency reports. Ahmadinejad makes the comments at a conference called “The World without Zionism”, attended by some 3,000 conservative students who chanted “Death to Israel” and “Death to America”.

— Governments from Russia to Canada condemn the Iranian president for his comments on Israel that once again raises questions about Tehran’s nuclear policy.

Dec. 2006 – Iran accuses the U.N. Security Council of pursuing a double standard in imposing sanctions on what it said was Tehran’s peaceful nuclear programme while ignoring Israel’s nuclear arsenal.

— Iran made the accusations after remarks by then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who implied for the first time in a recent German TV interview that his country had nuclear weapons.

June 2008 – Israel’s then Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz says in a newspaper interview that Israeli strikes on Iran looked “unavoidable” given progress in its nuclear plans.

Sept. 2008 – Mofaz denounces his native Iran as “the root of all evil” and says its nuclear programme constitutes a threat to world peace.

— Outgoing Prime Minister Olmert dismisses calls by some of his cabinet colleagues for a unilateral attack on Iran as “megalomania”, saying on Sept. 29 that Israel must “act within the envelope of the international system”.

April 2009 – Ahmadinejad prompts a rare walkout at a U.N. conference on race when he calls Israel a “cruel and repressive racist regime”. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon deplored the address which prompted dozens of delegates to leave their seats, which some Western powers including the United States boycotted.

— The boycott left Ahmadinejad, who has in the past cast doubt on the Nazi Holocaust, in the spotlight as the only head of state at the conference.

Sept. 2009 – A nuclear-armed Iran would not be capable of destroying Israel, Defence Minister Ehud Barak says in remarks that departed from long-running Israeli arguments about the threat posed by its foe.

Dec. 2009 – Ahmadinejad says Israel could not do a “damn thing” to stop the Islamic state’s nuclear programme, which the West suspects is a front to build bombs.

Feb. 2010 – Israel’s perspective on Iran’s nuclear programme differs from that of the U.S., and the two may part ways on what action to take, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

— “There is of course a certain difference in perspective and a difference in judgment and a difference in the internal clock, a difference in capabilities,” Barak says.”I don’t think that there is a need to coordinate in this regard. There should be understanding on the exchange of views, but we do not need to coordinate everything…”

March 2010 – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says in a speech in Washington that “a radical Iranian regime armed with nuclear weapons could bring an end to the era of nuclear peace the world has enjoyed for the last 65 years.”

— He added Israelis will “always reserve the right of self-defence.”

This entry was posted on March 29, 2010 at 3:58 PM and is filed under Iran / Israel War. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.