JERUSALEM (JTA) — An aide to Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya’alon denied that the former Israeli army chief of general staff said Israel should consider assassinating Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Ya’alon was quoted in an interview published in Monday’s Sydney Morning Herald as saying abou Iran’s president, "We have to consider killing him. All options must be considered."
The aide, who was unnamed, told several of Israel’s major publications that the assassination comment was incorrect and taken out of context.
"We have to confront the Iranian revolution immediately. There is no way to stabilize the Middle East today without defeating the Iranian regime," Ya’alon also was quoted as saying in the Herald. "The Iranian nuclear program must be stopped."
Yaalon announced last week that he would run in the upcoming Israeli elections on the Likud Party’s candidate list. He served as Israel Defense Forces chief from 2002 to 2005.
