Madam, - In all the discussion about Iran's nuclear ambitions (Editorial and Letters, January 13th) one important fact has been neglected. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said on November 16th, that "our revolution's main mission is to pave the way for the reappearance of the 12th Imam, the Mahdi".
The Imam lived at the end of the ninth century. Shi'ite tradition is that the Mahdi will return to lead an era of Islamic justice, but that this will only occur after a major hecatomb, in which a third of the world population is killed, and another third dies from epidemics. President Ahmadinejad clearly believes that Iran can hasten on the reappearance of the 12th Mahdi, and that a nuclear conflagration would ensure the necessary conditions for his resurrection.
In this agenda the president has full clerical support, as shown a few days ago by television pictures of clerics present at the breaking of the IAEA seals. Those familiar with the Book of Revelation will recall the catastrophic consequences of the breaking of the seventh seal.
President Ahmadinejad's agenda is a problem for the entire world, and not merely the Middle East. The world must see to it that Iran's nuclear weapon development be stopped. - Yours, etc,
DAVID SOWBY, Knocksinna Crescent, Dublin 18.