Rafsanjani defends Iran President’s anti-Israel stance

Iran Focus: a pro-MEK website

Iran’s former president and strongman Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani joined other senior officials of the Islamic Republic on Monday in defending remarks by the country’s hard-line President against the state of Israel.

In a meeting with Khaled Mashaal, the political bureau chief of Hamas, Rafsanjani said that the world had begun to see a “decline” of the “Zionist regime”.

The former president said, “Political deterioration of the Zionist regime” and the “withdrawal of Israeli forces from some parts of the occupied territories” were the reasons behind Israel’s “decline”. READ MORE

Rafsanjani, who currently heads the State Expediency Council, said that Tehran as well as Syria and Lebanon were being pressured to end their support of Palestinian groups.

He called on Palestinians to continue their struggle against the Jewish state.

Rafsanjani’s comments came two days after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also defended President Ahmadinejad who denied that the Holocaust took place and called for Israel to be moved to Europe.

“The unusual sensitivity of Zionists and their American supporters toward Iran's stance over the Zionist state reveals their increased weakness and fear about the level of attention given by Islamic nations to the Palestinian issue”, state radio quoted Khamenei as saying.

“Despite the Zionist's campaign, the struggle against the occupiers has become an old and thick tree in the Islamic world such that the arrogant powers could not sever its roots”, he added.

In October, Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be “wiped off the map”. His comments were defended by Iran’s Islamic leadership including Khamenei and Rafsanjani.