ISRAEL WANTS WAR BY SUMMER, AHMADINEJAD SAYS

“President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that Iran’s arch-foe Israel was mulling starting a war ‘next spring or summer’ but has yet to make a final decision,” reports Agence France Presse. “Without specifying whom would be targeted, Ahmadinejad said: ‘According to information we have, they (Israel) are seeking to start a war next spring or summer, although their decision is not final yet….But the resistance and regional states will finish them if this fake regime does anything again.'”

[UPDATE: Netanyahu in Moscow says Israel isn’t planning for war with Iran.]

The Iranian leaders comments come as Israel completes a massive new homeland security drill designed to prepare civilians for the possibility of a war with Iran or Syria. Netanyahyu is currently in Moscow for two-days of meetings with Putin and Medvedev, trying to engage Russia’s help to avert a war. Meanwhile, the head of the Israeli Defense Forces said this week that Israel is more peaceful than ever before, but that the peace is fragile and could give way soon to a major regional war. “This is a peaceful time, but this reality is fragile,” Lt.-General Gabi Ashkenazi said during a visit to Home Front Command headquarters to watch the ongoing exercise, as reported by the Jerusalem Post. “We have to face the changing nature of today’s wars, changes which caused a threat to the home front and turned it into an operational arena.”