Senior cleric: U.S. lost, Iran won after Ahmadinejad’s speech

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Oct. 29 – A senior Iranian cleric said that the Islamic Republic had come out victorious against the United States after the call by hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the destruction of Israel. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Oct. 29 – A senior Iranian cleric said that the Islamic Republic had come out victorious against the United States after the call by hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the destruction of Israel.

Ahmadinejad had told a crowd of several thousand students that “Israel should be wiped off the map”.

“It is right to say that America lost and Iran won”, Ayatollah Mohsen Meshkini, who heads the powerful Assembly of Experts, told Friday prayers worshippers in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran. The Assembly of Experts, an exclusively clerical body, designates the country’s Supreme Leader.

Ayatollah Meshkini urged Muslims to raise their voice against moderate Muslim leaders who want to normalise relations with Israel.

“While the oppression in Palestine is at its peak, the silence of these Muslim governments is haraam (contrary to Islamic law) and shameful”, he said.