Former Iranian president, influential cleric and politician Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday for taking western sanctions against Iran too lightly.
"Gentlemen, you should be vigilant and careful. Do not downplay the sanctions ... people should not be tricked," he said. “Throughout the revolution, we never had so many sanctions (placed against Iran) and I am calling on you and all officials to take the sanctions seriously and not as jokes," Rafsanjani told Iran's Assembly of Experts, a body which meets twice per year.
Rafsanjani said that ever since the 1979 upheaval, Iran has never experienced a situation like today's, with some states acting against Iran and others "activating” countries around it to turn against it. "We have never had such intensified sanctions and they are getting more and more intense every day. Wherever we find a loophole, they block it," he said.
In a separate report which appeared on the state television website and was carried by AFP, Rafsanjani was quoted as saying:"Over the past 30 years we had a war and military threats, but never have we seen such arrogance to plan a calculated assault against us. Never have we had so many resolutions from international institutions such as the UN Security Council and the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and governments against us."
His statements were aimed at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who compared the sanctions this week to “a used handkerchief which must be thrown away.”
On June 9, the United Nations' Security Council imposed a fourth set of sanctions against Iran for continuing its uranium enrichment program. The UN sanctions were followed by unilateral sanctions imposed by the US, the European Union, Australia, Canada, Japan, and South Korea.
Danny Yatom, the former head of Israel's Mossad intelligence service, said Tuesday that the consequences of a military strike on Iran would be grave, but not as terrible as a nuclear-armed Iran. "The entire world should take military action to prevent Iran from getting a bomb," he explained at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin.
Such an Iran "is the most dangerous near-future threat to the well-being of the world and the very existence of Israel," he said. "But this is not a sole Israeli problem but rather one of the entire world.” Iran is eager to acquire missiles that can hit targets all over the world, including in Western Europe, he said, and asked: "Now, why would they want that?"
On Sunday, Yatom spoke in Israel and hinted that Israel may have to attack Iran. “The price Israel will pay when Iran has a nuclear bomb is immeasurably heavier than what we will pay if someone carries out an attack on some of Iran's nuclear sites,” in a veiled reference to Israel as the "someone". .