(AP) UNITED NATIONS – Israel said Thursday that Iran has replaced Saddam Hussein as the “world’s No. 1 exporter of terror,” threatening the Jewish state and the whole world.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who said Wednesday that Iran must be taken before the Security Council over its nuclear program, said Iranian missiles can reach London, Paris and southern Russia.
“The international community now realizes that Iran does not only pose a threat to the security of Israel but to the security of the whole world,” Shalom told the General Assembly’s annual ministerial meeting.
“Indeed Iran has replaced Saddam Hussein as the world’s No. 1 exporter of terorism, hate and instability,” he said.
On Wednesday, Iran accused Israel of being a universal threat, and Tehran’s foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi, said Iran would react “most severely” to any Israeli strike against its nuclear facilities.
Kharrazi was questioned about a report that Israel said the United States was selling it nearly 5,000 smart bombs, including 500 one-ton bunker-busters that can destroy six-foot concrete walls. In 1981, Israel bombed Iraq’s nuclear reactor before it could begin operating.
“Israel has always been a threat, not only against Iran, but all countries,” Kharrazi said.
He said the main conflict in the Middle East is Israel’s “freedom to produce as much as they need — nuclear bombs as well as other weapons of mass destruction.”
“But be sure, any action by Israel certainly will be reacted (to) by us, most severely,” Kharrazi said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=535&e=5&u=/ap/20040923/ap_on_re_mi_ea/un_israel