Israel will not dare to harm Iran: Ahmadinejad

Tehran, July 14: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today said that Israel, which has struck at Lebanon in its search for two captured soldiers, would not dare to move against the Islamic republic, state television reported.

Iran has denied Israeli suggestions that Iranian- and Syrian-back Hizbollah guerrillas could take the captured Israeli soldiers to Iran.

''The Zionist regime does not dare to cast a look with bad intentions at Iran,'' the president was quoted as saying by state television. He used the term Iran routinely employs for Israel, which it does not recognise.

Ahmadinejad warned on Thursday of a ''fierce response'' if Israel struck at Syria, saying it would be considered an attack on the whole Islamic world.

Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be ''wiped off the map'' and described the Holocaust as a myth, called on the West to stop backing a ''terrorist state''.

''Otherwise you will share the responsibility for their (Israeli) crimes,'' Ahmadinejad said.

More than 60 civilians in Lebanon and two in Israel have been killed in the worst bout of fighting since Israel ended its occupation of south Lebanon six years ago.

Hizbollah, the Lebanese militia group, wants to trade the captured Israeli soldiers for Arab prisoners held in Israel.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said during a visit to Greece: ''Palestinians and Lebanese have said they are ready to proceed to prisoners exchange. We believe that the most logical solution is to have the logical and fair voices of Palestine and Lebanon heard.'' Iran insists its support for Hizbollah is purely moral.

Leading conservative cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani, in his Friday sermon at Tehran university, lashed out at Israel for its actions.

''All independent nations should rise up against these crimes,'' he told worshippers in comments broadcast live on state radio.

''What Hizbollah is doing is based on their legal, religious and legitimate rights.'' A crowd of 100 worshippers streamed through the streets of Tehran to denounce the Jewish state, witnesses said. The crowd, composed of women clad in the all-enveloping black chador and bearded men, chanted ''Death to Israel, Death to America'' and waved Palestinian flags.

Reuters