Iran chief said determined to ruin Israel

JERUSALEM, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- Given the chance, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would destroy Israel at almost any cost, the former Israeli national security adviser says.

If he ever became his country's supreme decision maker, a role held by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ahmadinejad would "sacrifice half of Iran for the sake of eliminating Israel," Giora Eiland told the Jerusalem Post.

Eiland said the president "has a reasonable chance" to succeed the ayatollah and if that happened, "we'd be in a highly dangerous situation."

She told the Post Ahmadinejad had a felt a "religious conviction that Israel's demise is essential to the restoration of Muslim glory."