Israel's deputy prime minister says Iran wants to revive the Persian Empire and once again become a major superpower with a nuclear bomb, Today's Zaman reported.
Silvan Shalom told reporters after meeting UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday that Iran would like to change the types of regimes in the Middle East and take control of all the oil fields in the region as part of its quest for power.
The Persian Empire once encompassed millions of miles (kilometers) in Asia, Africa and Europe from modern-day Afghanistan through most of the Mideast to Turkey and Macedonia.