Rahimi: Jewish Talmud to blame for drugs trade

The teachings of the Jewish book of law, the Talmud, are a driving force behind the international drugs trade, Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said in comments reported on Wednesday. Rahimi's remarks, at an international anti-drug conference in Tehran attended by many foreign diplomats on Tuesday, were a rare diatribe by an Iranian official targeting the Jewish faith, rather than the state of Israel. "The spread of narcotics in the world emanates from the teachings of the Talmud... whose objective is the destruction of the world," Rahimi said in comments published by the official website of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and state media. "The Talmud teaches that it is lawful to acquire wealth through legal and illegal means... which gives (the Jews) the right to destroy humanity," he said. "If one seeks what lies behind all forms of corruption, there is the repugnant face of Zionists. This is the same case for the narcotics trade ... whose primary operator is the Zionist regime," he said. "The Zionists spread destruction not only by drugs, but also by (attacking) cultures." Iranian officials have repeatedly courted international outrage with tirades against the state of Israel but criticism of Judaism as a faith has been rare. The Talmud is a book of oral tradition derived from the Jewish holy book, the Torah, that contains all the principles that govern daily life. Ahmadinejad has said many times that the Jewish state is doomed to destruction, while supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has branded it "a cancerous tumor that must be removed." In February last year, Iran accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of promoting drug use in Iran by selling narcotics at cut price in the hope of weakening the regime.