IRAN yesterday launched an unprecedented verbal attack against Europe, which it predicted “could get hurt” unless it halted its support for Israel.

As millions of Iranians took to the streets of the country’s cities to mark “Jerusalem Day”, an annual day of protest against Israel, President Ahmadinejad used the occasion to round on his detractors abroad.

Describing Israel’s leaders as a “bunch of terrorists”, he issued America and its Western allies with an ultimatum. Unless the West distanced itself from the Jewish state, he predicted that the Middle East would “take revenge”.

“You should believe that this regime [Israel] cannot last and has no more benefit to you,” he said. “What benefit have you got in supporting this regime, except the hatred of the nations? We have advised the Europeans that the Americans are far away but you are the neighbours of the nations in this region.

“We inform you that the nations are like an ocean that is welling up, and if a storm begins, the dimensions will not stay limited to Palestine, and you may get hurt.”

The Iranian leader has become notorious for his rhetorical outbursts and once called for Israel to be “wiped off the map”.

While Europe still enjoys diplomatic and trade relations with Iran, ties between the two have become strained over the past weeks by moves from Britain, France and Germany to impose sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme.

According to British diplomats, officials from the three states were putting the final touches yesterday to a joint draft resolution to be presented to the United Nations Security Council next week.

The Times has learnt that the document will call for curbs on the transfer of ballistic missile technology and some nuclear equipment to Tehran unless it halts parts of its atomic programme, in particular the enrichment of uranium. The sanctions would be mandatory under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.

They could be augmented by tougher measures if Iran continued with its enrichment work, which many in the West fear is a cover for acquiring fissile material needed to build an atomic bomb.

Anticipating the move, Mr Ahmadinejad called the UN Security Council illegitimate and said that Tehran would ignore any moves made against it.

“The Security Council lacks legitimacy. Its decisions are illegitimate. You [the Council] want to be the judge, the prosecutor and the executor at the same time? Those times are gone,” the Iranian leader said.

Iran so far has successfully defied international action, largely because of Russia and China, both permanent members of the US Security Council. Moscow and Beijing have important trade relations with Iran and they have successfully blocked previous attempts to impose sanctions on Tehran.

But international opinion is hardening against Iran. This week Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, visited Moscow, where he urged President Putin to take action to prevent Iran acquiring a nuclear capability. Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, delivered a similar message in Beijing.

Attitudes have toughened partly as a result of North Korea’s decision to detonate an underground nuclear device this month. Iran is thought to be several years away from reaching the same level of nuclear know-how.

There are fears that if relations with Iran deteriorate it could lead to violence in the region. French and German forces have recently deployed in southern Lebanon, a region where Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shia Muslim militia, remains a powerful force.

British troops in southern Iraq are also vulnerable to attack from Shia forces supported by Tehran.

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