1 It really is "send a message" time. Perhaps the US/UK should start by eliminating all the Pali military camps in Bekaa. A few well placed assassinations and explosions in various headquarters could provide a hint of our displeasure.

2 I saw a quote once, where Iran said they were not intimidated by the threat of a United States Military response; indeed the quote was something to the effect that they had already analyzed our failures in Iraq. Of course Iran is basing our "military action" purely based on a the scenario of an invasion, and not a carpet bombing back to the stone age, I'm guessing their analysis did not include the "shock and awe" footage, nor did they realize the U.S did not even drop the second, nor first non-nuclear bomb in their inventory, nor deploy EMP based weapons. It is looking almost certain this will not be settled with diplomacy.

3 This is why I love Tony Blair. That was the perfect statement.

4 The call by Iran to destroy Israel is, sadly, not new. In 2001, Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, a former president, suggested that the Islamic world annihilate the Jewish state with nuclear weapons, an attack that he claimed would "just produce damages" to the perpetrator. And the elimination of Israel has been a constant theme of rallies organised by the regime. Nevertheless, the speech by President Ahmadinejad in Teheran on Wednesday was shocking. He told a conference entitled "The world without Zionism" that Israel should be "wiped off the map", and expressed no doubt that the latest wave of Palestinian terrorist attacks would soon remove "this disgraceful blot from the face of the Islamic world". Such remarks by a head of state about a fellow member of the UN are unprecedented. The nearest equivalent is China's refusal to renounce force in seeking reunification with Taiwan, a de facto sovereign entity; in July, one of its generals said his country was prepared to go to nuclear war with America over the island. Mr Ahmadinejad's speech has been condemned by, among others, the EU, at its Hampton Court summit yesterday, America, Australia, Canada and Russia. Shamefully, there has not been a squeak from the Arab world. Do Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania, all of which have recognised Israel, have no riposte to a president who rants that they will "burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury" for having established diplomatic relations with Israel? Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestnian leader, condemned Islamic Jihad's suicide bombing in the Israeli coastal town of Hadera, but has had nothing to say about an existential threat by Iran, one of the movement's sponsors, to a state with which he is trying to reach a final status solution. And there has likewise been silence from governments such as those of Morroco, Qatar and Tunisia, which have sought to strengthen links with Israel following its recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Shimon Peres, who is a archetypal dove, has suggested that Iran be expelled from the UN. The proposal is pertinent. A member that calls for the destruction of another defies the purposes of the organisation's charter, and should be sanctioned by the Security Council. That body has seemed to court irrelevance over the past few years. It declined to grasp the nettle of Saddam's repeated challenges to its authority. It handed over North Korea's nuclear ambitions to six-party talks hosted by China. It has yet to take proper responsibility for a similar challenge posed by Iran, the issue remaining with the International Atomic Energy Agency, despite Teheran's cavalier attitude to repeated resolutions by the board of governers. Mr Ahmadinejad's speeches to the UN General Assembly last month and to the Teheran conference on Wednesday have richly confirmed his reputation as a hardline ex-Revolutionary Guard. If the Security Council fails to confront such a rogue head of state, it does not deserve its name.

5 Otocon, One shouldn't be too surprised by the president of Iran's remarks. After all, he was only repeating what most of the surrounding Arab states said when Israel was first established in 1948.

6 Will: The recently elected President of Iran, has proclaimed his country's nuclear ambitions to be entirely peaceful. Yet, following his mentor, the late Ayatollah Khomeini, he declares that "Israel should be wiped off the map". He has inadvertently made manifest precisely why he needs nuclear power - at least to the Israelis and Jews, if not the bein pensants of "liberal" drawing rooms. The attempted annihilation of Jewry, as you said, is hardly an original idea, but now, more than ever, it is likely to cost us all a good deal more than the world can afford.

7 Did anyone else see where Syria is now calling for dialogue with the US? Typical gutless arabs; they pick a fight then run.

8 Exellent points, Otocon.

9 Maybe a strongly worded memo will scare 'em to their senses.

10 A message to IRAN if you destroy IREAL we will leave a smoking crater where TERAN is now and screw hanoi jane

11 Tony Blair is finally getting some real balls. Shame about all the muslim vermin that have infested Britain. Next job is to kick them all out. I even heard that one insipid bank has stopped dishing out piggy banks because they may offend muslims...talk about selling out your own traditions to cow down to scum.

12 Do ignore the Jester, we don't have "muslim vermin" in Britain, we don't even have a comparable level of racism save the Nationalist nutters. And I don't even care if he's jesting, those comments go beyond offending muslims. Grow up about the bank, don't you think they want some muslim customers? The gift is meant to be an incentive, not offensive. But I'll bet you can get a gorgeous piggy bank off ebay to shove up your arse you clown.