Ali-Akbar-Salehi. Photo: Palácio do Planalto.

Continuing a flurry of anti-Israel remarks from Iranian leaders in recent weeks, Ali Akbar Saleh has told an Egyptian newspaper that the Jewish state is “a malignant tumor” whose fate will be erased, and that despite speculation of Israeli military action against Iran and its nuclear facilities, “Israel is not in a position to wage war against Iran.”

Brushing off European and U.S. financial sanctions aimed at forcing Iran to heed to demands on its nuclear program, Saleh, who is Iran’s Foreign Minister, added  “the military option suggestions regarding America and Israel show the failure of other options. At any rate we are preparing for all possibilities,” in comments to Egypt’s Al-Ahram.

August has been a tense month for those worried about a military conflict between Israel and Iran, including an increase in Israeli media speculation about a coming attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.  As the back and forth between Israeli leaders who support military intervention and those who oppose it continues, and Washington and Jerusalem debate how much time financial sanctions should be given before military action is taken, Iranian leaders have continued to call for Israel’s destruction.

“Westerners are after [the establishment] of a new Middle East. We are also after a new Middle East which will definitely be formed … but in this new Middle East, there will be no trace of the US and Zionists,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said last week in Tehran.”The very existence of the Zionist regime is an insult to humanity,” Ahmadinejad added.

These comments came one day after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei stated Israel would “disappear from the geographical landscape”.