Israel's threats only strengthen our resolve, says Iranian military commander

Israel's threats against Iran only serve to strengthen the resolve of its leaders, said the head of the Revolutionary Guards on Friday.

"The enemies want to stop us continuing our path... but these threats only reinforce our determination to continue in the same direction," said General Mohammad Ali Jafari in a speech to thousands of Basij militiamen.

"That is why, when the Zionists make military threats, they are put in their place by the United States," he added.

His statements were posted on Sepah News, the Guards' website, according to a report published by AFP.

Meanwhile, AFP also quoted General Farzad Esmaili, the head of Iran's air and ballistic missile units, as saying, "If a military attack is launched against our nuclear installations, we promise that the enemies will not escape alive." His comments were published by Iran's ISNA news agency.

On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the international community to draw a "clear red line"beyond which the Iranian nuclear weapons project would not be allowed to progress. Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York, Netanyahu warned that Iran would be dangerously close to attaining nuclear weapons capability by next summer.

Also Friday, Iranian news agency FARS reported the results of a Gallup poll which it said had found that "an overwhelming majority of rural white Americans said they would rather vote for Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than U.S. President Barack Obama."

The poll in question, however, was not a real poll, but afake poll published by the satirical website The Onion.

Apparently not realizing that the poll was a fake, FARS reported that "60 percent of rural whites said they at least respected that Ahmadinejad doesn't try to hide the fact that he's Muslim."
Haaretz