The grandson of the former supreme leader of Iran has claimed that Islamic nations will “do to Israel what Hamas did” if they get the opportunity to “erase” the Jewish state in the future.
Speaking on Lebanese TV, Ali Ahmad Khomeini, whose grandfather Ruhollah Khomeinei ruled in Tehran from the 1979 Islamic Revolution until 1989, suggested that all Muslim countries had a “duty” to attack Israel
“The Israelis know full well that if the day comes when any Islamic nation is capable of firing missiles at Israel, and striking Israel, and if they are capable of erasing Israel – they will do to Israel what Hamas did to it,” he said in an interview with Maydaeen TV, according to a translation provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri).
“Today, we see that some countries in the region are not fulfilling their duty, saying that they are incapable of doing so.
“Israel knows, America knows, and the leaders of the superpowers know that if the day comes when the Islamic countries are capable of bombing Israel, they will do it.”
Asked which countries he was referring to, Khomeini went on: “All the Muslim nations.”
And, referring to the tensions between Iran and the US, he added: "We are not afraid of them at all, because we are steadfast, and we are defending our rights and our country.
"We say to the Americans: you will die before you see us humiliated.”
His comments came as negotiations between Washington and Tehran continue following the brutal suppression of mass anti-regime protests across the Islamic Republic.
At least 6,000 people were killed as security forces crushed the demonstrations, which broke out across all 31 of the country’s provinces in late December following a collapse in the value of the currency against the backdrop of a long-term economic and cost-of-living crisis.
The talks, which began in Oman on Friday after a last-minute venue change from Istanbul, are understood to centre on Iran’s nuclear capabilities, its growing arsenal of ballistic missiles and its financial and logistical support for regional terror proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
The nuclear issue in particular appears to be a key point of contention, with Iran insisting that it will not give up its programme of uranium enrichment, which it maintains will be used for civilian energy projects rather than nuclear weapons.
The IAEA, the UN’s atomic watchdog, estimates that the regime has around 400kg of 60 per cent enriched material, just a technical step away from the 90 per cent threshold to be considered weapons-grade.
According to a report from the regime-linked IRNA news agency, Mohammad Eslami, head of Iran’s atomic energy agency, has offered to dilute Tehran’s stock of enriched uranium without disposing of it entirely.
Dilution, also known as downblending, involved mixing the uranium with other materials to reduce its enrichment percentage. This lengthens the amount of time needed to re-enrich the material to the level required for nuclear weapons.
Satellite images released this week also appear to show the entrances to the network of underground tunnels at the Isfahan nuclear site, which was among those bombed by the US last June, have been sealed off.
The US-based Institute for Science and International Security, which published the photos on Monday, said in its report that the move indicates Iran is “seriously concerned” about a potential future attack on the site.
President Trump has threatened that "bad things will happen” if Iran declines a diplomatic solution, stationing an “armada”, including the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, in the Arabian Sea.
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