Iran's former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has denied accusations that he called for the destruction of Israel with nuclear weapons, newspapers reported today.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said last week Mr Rafsanjani had in a recent speech said the Islamic world was seeking nuclear weapons to destroy Israel and undermine Western interests in the region.
But Mr Rafsanjani, who is still a powerful figure in Iran, said his comments at a mid-December Friday prayers sermon had been taken out of context.
"By pretending innocence, Israeli officials are trying to divert world public opinion from their terrorist crimes against the defenceless Palestinian people and fan negative propaganda against the Islamic republic," Mr Rafsanjani's office said in a statement published in Iranian newspapers.
Although not an elected official, Mr Rafsanjani still wields immense influence as the head of the powerful Expediency Council, which sets long-term policy, including on foreign relations.
The statement said Mr Rafsanjani had merely sought to advise Israel not to get into an arms race because this would only be to the detriment of Israel itself.
"If this regime continues its hellish policy on expanding its nuclear arsenal, it will eventually draw the Islamic world into the race. Then it will be Israel, a small and illegitimate country, which will lose out and be destroyed," it said, quoting from Mr Rafsanjani's December 14 speech.
Western media say Israel has up to 200 nuclear warheads in its arsenal, but the Jewish state has neither confirmed nor denied this.