US ready to defend allies: Rice

Published: Thursday July 10, 2008

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice responded Thursday to an Iranian threat to "set fire" to Israel by saying the United States was prepared to defend its interests and allies.

"We will defend American interests and the interests of our allies. We take very strongly our obligation to defend our allies and we intend to do that," Rice said, responding to a journalist's question on the threat made by an aide to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.