REPORT: Iranian TV clarifies Rouhani's Israel "wound" comment

Iran's president-elect on Friday said Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands was a "wound" on the Muslim world, in remarks shown on state television that differed sharply from an earlier local news agency report on his comments.
  
The student news agency ISNA had quoted Rouhani as saying: "The Zionist regime is a wound that has sat on the body of the Muslim world for years and needs to be removed."
   
However, Rouhani was seen in video footage broadcast by Press TV as saying: "In our region there's been a wound for years on the body of the Muslim world under the shadow of the occupation of the holy land of Palestine and the beloved al-Qods (Jerusalem)".
  
He was speaking to journalists during an annual Qods Day rally in solidarity with the Palestinian people and to call for an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.
   
ISNA's version of his remarks echoed the fiercely anti-Israeli language of outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but was swiftly repudiated by Iranian state media which said news agencies had distorted what Rouhani had said.
             
In turn, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iranian president-elect Hassan Rouhani had shown his true face on Friday after he was quoted as saying Israel was a "wound" that must be removed.                              

"The true face of Rouhani has been revealed sooner than expected; this is what the man thinks and this is the Iranian regime's plan of action," Netanyahu said.                                                

Rouhani won a landslide victory in Iran's June 14 presidential election. He replaces Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday.                                      

Rouhani has pledged to follow a "path of moderation" and promised greater openness over Iran's nuclear program, which has placed it at odds with the West.


REUTERS/AP


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