The Iranian Position.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Hizbollah will in no way be disarmed. President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad has repeated his favoured slogan: Israel must be wiped off the world map.

Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Hadad-Adel, a relative of Khamenei, on July 18 told a Tehran rally the Israelis should "flee occupied Palestine". He called Israel "this filthy tumour" that "lies in the body of the Islamic world". He warned the US that, as long as Israel exists, "Muslims will not stop hating America".