TEHRAN (AFP) — Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani said on Monday Iran is no friends of the Israelis, reacting to remarks to the contrary by an aide of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Fars news agency reported.
"We are not friends with the Israeli people and Iran has a logic which is what the (supreme) leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) has said," Larijani was quoted as saying.
Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, a deputy of Ahmadinejad, has insisted that Iran is "friends with the Israeli people."
Rahim Mashaie first made statements to this effect in July. More recent remarks reaffirming his position in unequivocal terms were printed in several local newspapers on Monday.
"I had said this before that we do not have any hostility against the Israeli people and I still say the same thing proudly," Rahim Mashaie was quoted as saying by Kargozaran newspaper.
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