Special to WorldTribune.com

JERUSALEM — Iran’s supreme leader has long envisioned all-out war
with Israel and the United States.

Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar asserted that Iranian
supreme leader Ali Khamenei concluded that Teheran would make war on Israel
and the United States.

Aznar recalled a meeting with Khamenei in 2000 in which the Iranian leader said his role was to ensure that Teheran would succeed in such a conflict.

“In any case, at some point he said very clearly though softly as he
spoke, that a war against the U.S. and Israel was inevitable and that he was working for Iran to prevail in such a confrontation,” Aznar recalled.
“Actually, it was his duty as the ultimate vanguard of the Islamic global
revolution.”

In an address to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs on May 16,
Aznar discounted Western assessments that Khamenei was a moderate leader. The former Spanish foreign minister said Khamenei regarded his duty as destroying Israel.

“Israel to him was a kind of historical cancer, an anomaly,” Aznar
recalled, “a country to be put in flames and condemned to disappear.”

[On May 17, U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro said Washington has
completed plans for a military strike option on Iran. In an interview with
Israel Army Radio, Shapiro said the administration of President Barack Obama
still prefers to resolve the nuclear crisis with Iran through diplomacy.]

Aznar was one of the few Western leaders who met Khamenei. His meeting
with Khamenei was unscheduled and took place during the minister’s visit to
Teheran on Oct. 22-23, 2000.

The audience, comprised mostly of foreign diplomats, focused on
Khamenei’s remarks about Israel. Aznar reiterated that the Iranian leader
saw Israel as a threat, which demanded the elimination of the Jewish state.

“This is necessary to eliminate the risk, the threat that Israel poses,
and this means obviously the elimination of Israel, and the elimination of
the threat means that Israel must be eliminated,” Aznar said.

  former Spanish PM says, Iran, Iran leader has long planned war with Israel and U.S., Khamenei, U.S.