Iranian president condemns Israeli bombing on Lebanese village

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out at Israel and its allies on Sunday, condemning the Jewish country for its bombing of Lebanon's Qana village that killed at least 54 civilians.

"Such a criminal act will bring this corrupt regime and its allies close to a termination," Ahmadinejad told a press conference.

The Iranian president said it was "definitely wrong" for Israel and its close allies, the United States and Britain, to presume that military actions could help them to control the whole region.

Earlier, the chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, General Yahya Rahim Safavi, requested his troops to prepare to revenge on Israel and the United States for Israel's offensives in Lebanon.

"Our strong Revolutionary Guards and Basij troops must prepare themselves to retaliate on Zionists and Americans", the local Fars news agency quoted Safavi as saying.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps was set up in the 1979 revolution to defend the Islamic Republic and has become a very powerful institution in the country. The Basij are volunteer Islamic militiamen.

"I want our country to revenge the blood of innocent people in Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan," Safavi said. "We should keep this sacred hatred of the enemies of Islam alive in our hearts until the time of revenge comes."

It's not immediately clear if Safavi's remarks represented an Iranian decision to mobilize troops for war, as Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, chief of staff of the Iranian Armed forces, has said that his country would not enter the current crisis in Lebanon militarily.

Israeli missiles hit several buildings in the southern Lebanese village of Qana earlier on Sunday, killing at least 54, mostly children, in the deadliest attack in 19 days of fighting.

Source: Xinhua