By Xinhua,
United Nations : Iran strongly condemned Wednesday U.S. presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton for threatening to destroy the country, vowing to respond to any attack.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon dated April 30,Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi, Iran’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, slammed Clinton for making “such a provocative, unwarranted and irresponsible statement,” which constituted “a flagrant violation” of the UN Charter.
While campaigning for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, Clinton told ABC News in an interview last week that as president she would retaliate against Iran if the Islamic republic attacked Israel with nuclear weapons.
“I want the Iranians to know that if I’m the president, we will attack Iran,” Clinton said. “In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them.”
Danesh-Yazdi reiterated the Iranian government’s position that “it has no intention to attack any other nations,” but “Iran would not hesitate to act in self-defense to respond to any attack against the Iranian nation and to take appropriate defensive measures to protect itself.”
He also reaffirmed the Iranian government’s determination not to seek nuclear weapons, saying “that nuclear weapons as the most lethal and inhumane weapons have no place in the defense doctrine of the country.”
Danesh-Yazdi asked the UN chief to circulate the letter to the 15 members of the UN Security Council.