Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Photo: Daniella Zalcman.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on May 12 said that Israel poses little threat to the Islamic Republic and compared it to a pesky insect.

“Israel is nothing more than a mosquito which cannot see the broad horizon of the Iranian nation,” Ahmadinejad said while speaking in northeastern Iran’s Khorassan province, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

Ahmadinejad’s comments come ahead of Iran’s second round of nuclear talks with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany, which are scheduled to take place in Baghdad on May 23.