Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday that change in Tehran could bring Iran and Israel together after years of acrimony.
“There is a no conflict between the Iranian people and the people of Israel and under a different regime the friendly relations that prevailed in the past could be restored,” the Israeli prime minister told the German daily paper Bild.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be wiped off the map and his regime sponsors both the Hamas and Hizbullah terrorist groups. He was reelected to another term ten days ago according to official election results, but thousands of Iranians have protested in support of reformist candidate Hir Hossein Moussavi who says the vote was rigged.
“I think the true nature of the Iranian regime has been unmasked,” Netanyahu said in support of the protest movement. “What we have seen in Iran is a powerful desire on the part of the Iranian people to be free,” he added.
Reactions to the protests in Tehran were originally cool in Israel, with intelligence officials claiming there to be little difference between the candidates. President Shimon Peres and Netanyahu have since lent their support to the Iranian dissidents.
