PM on Purim to BBC’s Persian service: Iranian regime carrying on in Haman’s tradition
The current Iranian regime is perpetuating the tradition of Haman from 2,500 years ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday – Purim – in an interview with the BBC’s Persian-language television news channel.
During the interview, conducted in English, Netanyahu said that Israel has always had great respect for the people of Iran, “from the days of King Cyrus, who was a great friend of the Jewish people.
“But unfortunately, there was another tradition in Persia, and that was the tradition of Haman, who 2,500 years ago sought to destroy the Jewish people in the way that Hitler sought to destroy,” said Netanyahu, who later in the day attended a reading of the Book of Esther to mark Shushan Purim in Jerusalem.
“We prefer the tradition of Cyrus,” he said. “This regime continues the tradition of Haman. And I hope that we find a way to change those policies. Certainly we shouldn’t reward them with nuclear weapons.”