Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday’s statement by new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that “the Zionist regime has been a wound on the body of the Islamic world’’ shows that while the President of Iran has been replaced ‘’ the goal of the regime has not been replaced, it remains as it was.’’
‘’Iran's intention is to develop a nuclear capability and nuclear weapons in order to destroy the State of Israel, and this constitutes a danger not only to us and the Middle East, but the entire world, and we are all committed to prevent this," he said Sunday at the weekly cabinet meeting.
On Saturday, Netanyahu’s office said he was standing by its condemnation of Rouhani’s comments despite the fact that tweets were deleted from one of his Twitter accounts.
“No tweet about Rouhani comments was removed,” an Israeli government spokesperson tsaid. “No statement was retracted,’’ he added.
Netanyahu stated : “Rouhani’s true face has been revealed earlier than expected. Even if they will now rush to deny his remarks, this is what the man thinks and this is the plan of the Iranian regime. These remarks by President Rouhani must rouse the world from the illusion that part of it has been caught up in since the Iranian elections.”
Rouhani won a landslide victory in Iran’s presidential election in June, pledge,ng ed to follow a “path of moderation.” He took office on Saturday, succeeding Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, after Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei endorsed him.