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Iranian-sponsored event in country with nukes calls for Israel’s ‘nuclear extinction’

A Pakistani journalist called his nuclear country an antidote to ‘the cancer named Israel,’ in rush of anti-Israel articles and demonstrations during Ramadan.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

During a recent Al-Quds day event in Afghanistan’s third largest city, an Iranian government-sponsored event called for Israel’s “nuclear extinction,” according to a Tuesday report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

The NPO, which monitors what is said in the Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Pashtu, Turkish and Russian media about Israel, translated a report on an exhibition organized in Herat by the Iranian consulate’s Cultural Center as part of month-long Al-Quds Day celebrations during Ramadan, which began on March 23.

Besides advocating Israel’s destruction, the program included “a discussion about the media terrorism of the occupier regimes of Israel, and America and its allies in different periods when it invaded the territory of Islamic countries,” Consul-General Majid Khaliqnia said, according to MEMRI’s translation of Afghan news portal Watan24.com.

Israel has been warning the world about Iran’s nuclear ambitions for years, and Western intelligence agencies have confirmed that the Islamic Republic could already build at least a “dirty bomb” within a matter of weeks if it chose to do so.

The MEMRI report noted that Iran has extra influence in the Herat province, which is on its border, but many rallies, seminars and exhibitions denouncing Israel and proclaiming support for “Palestine” were held over the entire month in the Afghani capital of Kabul and other provinces as well.

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The extremist Taliban have been in power since last August in Afghanistan, and have imposed their strict variation of Sharia, Islamic law, over the country.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Pakistan, Mohammad Abdullah Hamid Gul, the son of the former chief of the country’s military Intelligence agency, wrote an article on April 11 decrying reports of indirect trade between Pakistan and Israel, although the two have no diplomatic relations.

“This century’s mega project of the Jews is ‘Greater Israel’ and Pakistan is the biggest obstacle in its path,” he wrote in Roznama Dunya, an Urdu-language daily, making point-blank reference to “Pakistan’s nuclear assets.”

“There is no doubt that [nuclear] Pakistan is the antidote to the cancer named Israel,” he added.

MEMRI reviewed what it called an “upsurge” of anti-Israel and antisemitic statements made in South Asia during this period, focusing on Afghanistan and Pakistan, but also India, which has a sizeable Muslim population. In India, a friendly country that has robust trade and security relations with the Jewish state, Shiite leaders in Mumbai and Lucknow led marches, for example, where speakers talked about the “obliteration” of Israel, said the report.

In general, Al-Quds Day, established by the Islamic Republic to call for the “liberation of Jerusalem,” is marked on the last Friday of the holy month when Muslims fast all day and is supposed to be a time of reconciliation and goodwill. In Iran and throughout much of the Muslim world, it was observed on April 21 by massive anti-Israel demonstrations where vows to “free Palestine” and speeches calling for “Death to Israel and America” were ubiquitous.