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Iranian Cleric: Muslims Could Nuke Israel

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Ruling Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani declared Friday that the Muslim world could survive a nuclear exchange with Israel - while accomplishing the goal of obliterating the Jewish state.

"[The] application of an atomic bomb would not leave anything in Israel - but the same thing would just produce damages in the Muslim world," Hashemi-Rafsanjani said, in quotes picked up by the Iran Press Service.

"If a day comes when the world of Islam is duly equipped with the arms Israel has in possession, the strategy of colonialism would face a stalemate," he posited.

Analysts told IPS that Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani’s speech, delivered at a Tehran prayer service, was the first time that a prominent Islamic leader openly suggested a nuclear attack against the Israel.

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  Six weeks ago, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a "World Without Zionism" conference that Israel should be "wiped off the map."

Last week, United Nations nuclear watchdog Mohammed ElBaradei said Iran would be able to produce nuclear weapons in a matter of months.

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