Brown warns Iran to end 'totally abhorrent' threat to destroy Israel

Nicholas Watt
London Guardian
Monday, July 21, 2008

Flashback: The "Wipe Israel Off The Map" Hoax

Gordon Brown will today recall the Holocaust as he delivers a blunt warning to Iran to end its "totally abhorrent" threat to destroy Israel, calling on Tehran to abandon plans to develop nuclear weapons.

In the first speech by a British prime minister to the Israeli parliament, Brown will declare that Britain will stand by the country when its "very right to exist" is under threat.

Brown's remarks will be seen as a signal that Britain could be prepared to support a military strike against Iran if all other diplomatic routes fail, including a tightening of sanctions. The prime minister will tell Israeli MPs: "Britain is your true friend. A friend in difficult times as well as in good times, a friend who will stand beside you whenever your peace, your stability and your existence are under threat."

Brown will single out Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, who has said that Israel should be wiped from the map. The prime minister will say: "To those who question Israel's right to exist, and threaten the lives of its citizens through terror, we say: the people of Israel have a right to live here, to live freely and to live in security. And to those who believe that threatening statements fall upon indifferent ears we say in one voice: that it is totally abhorrent for the president of Iran to call for Israel to be wiped from the map of the world."

Brown will stop short of endorsing the comparisons made by many Israeli politicians between Ahmadinejad and Hitler. The prime minister's speech today, his toughest to date on Tehran, follows an inconclusive meeting with Iran's negotiators on Saturday in Geneva. Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, has given Iran two weeks to sign up to a package of economic and political support in return for halting the enrichment of uranium.

Full article here

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