TEHRAN (Tasnim) A senior Iranian cleric slammed certain Western countries for their efforts to spread Iranophobia, saying that they are pursuing the policy in a bid to justify the crimes of the Zionist regime of Israel.West is seeking to portray Iran as a violent country and the axis of terrorism in the world public opinion, that is while the world knows that all threats are posed by the Zionist regime of Israel, said Grand Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamedani on Wednesday.
Israel is widely understood to possess nuclear weapons but declines to confirm or deny it under the policy of nuclear ambiguity. It has refused to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and been the only obstacle in the way of realization of a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East.
Most experts estimate that Israel has between 100 and 200 nuclear warheads, largely based on information leaked to the Sunday Times newspaper in the 1980s by Mordechai Vanunu, a former worker at the country's Dimona nuclear reactor.
Elsewhere in his remarks,Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani deplored the remarks made by US President Barack Obama amid negotiations between Iran and six world powers over Tehrans peaceful nuclear program, describing them as "totally unwise."
Obama had earlier claimed that because of the US unprecedented sanctions againt Tehran, the Iranian officials have come to the negotiation table.
By Tasnim News Agency
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