Iranian media reported on Wednesday that 40 Iranian lawmakers had put their names to a petition demanding that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad be "disciplined" after his vice president, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, described Iran earlier this summer as "a friend of the Israeli people."
Rahim-Mashaei was trying to convince the international community that Iran poses a military threat to no one, and to portray Israel as the regional aggressor.
Ahmadinejad's punishment in this case would consist of being summoned before the Iranian parliament to explain himself.
The Iranian president has positioned himself as one of Israel's strongest detractors, repeatedly advocating the destruction of the Jewish state and calling into question the veracity of the Nazi Holocaust.