According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), " Iran's President stated that 'I hope by the end of the year (Iranian year to March 2007), we will be able to hold the great celebration of Iran 's nuclear right."

The Iranian leadership is extremely hostile to the state of Israel. According to another AFP report, the Iranian president spoke of the "disappearance and destruction" of Israel during a fairly recent discussion with his ministers.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urgently called on the West "to believe him and stop him."

The November 2006 issue of Commentary stated that Western and UN diplomatic overtures to the Iranian leadership have "not succeeded in influencing its fundamental error or curbing its radical ambitions." (Sources: Agence France-Presse, Haaretz [Tel Aviv].)