Press TV- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has stressed that Tehran is a threat to no country, rejecting remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who vilified Iran as an “aggressive empire”.


Addressing a Wednesday cabinet meeting in Tehran, Rouhani noted that “Iran is a threat to no one. The Islamic Republic seeks stability and security in the whole region.”
However, he added, “it will defend its rights strongly.”

“Those who for 70 years have been fomenting chaos, war and destruction in the region and have committed genocide and caused the Sabra and Shatila [massacres], are not in a position to talk about Iran’s threat,” Rouhani said.

He was referring to the massacre of hundreds and perhaps thousands of civilians in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in southern Lebanon in 1982. Former Israeli premier Ariel Sharon, who at the time was Israel’s minister for military affairs, was commanding Israeli forces who had encircled the Sabra and Shatila camps while their allied forces were slaughtering the victims.

Rouhani’s comments came after Netanyahu described Iran as a danger and an aggressive empire in his address before the influential lobby group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington Tuesday, a day after talks with US President Donald Trump.