Khamenei Attacks Israel Again: 'The Zionist Regime Will Definitely Be Destroyed'

The leader of the Islamic Republic, just days after the Israeli Prime Minister called Iran's intent to destroy Jews a 'lie' and 'victimhood,' reiterated that Israel 'will definitely be destroyed.' According to the state news agency IRNA, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated on Friday, June 15, in a meeting with officials of the Islamic Republic that the problem with Israel is its 'illegitimacy' and that a regime founded on falsehood 'will certainly be destroyed and will perish.' On the same day, Khamenei's Twitter account also published his remarks in English: he once again proposed holding a referendum 'among real Palestinians' and added that 'holding such a referendum and establishing a Palestinian government actually means the destruction' of Israel. In recent years, Ayatollah Khamenei has frequently spoken about the 'elimination of Israel' within the next 25 years. However, five days earlier, he had rejected the Israeli Prime Minister's statements about Iran's efforts to 'destroy the Jews,' calling them 'victimhood' and 'lies.' According to Khamenei, former Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser 'used to shout that we would throw the Jews into the sea,' but 'we have never made such statements from the beginning and announced a plan... we said to refer to the Palestinian people for determining the fate of the historical land of Palestine.' Following this statement, several websites, including the Zeytoon website, interpreted these remarks as a 'tactical retreat' by Ayatollah Khamenei from the slogan of 'eliminating Israel,' attributing this move to negotiations between Iran and Europe regarding the status of the JCPOA. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during his trip to Europe, emphasized that Iran wants to 'kill six million more Jews' and 'wants to do this by acquiring nuclear weapons.' Netanyahu's reference was to the 'declaration of intent to destroy Israel' in a tweet from Khamenei's account. This tweet was actually a rehash of his remarks from 2012: 'Israel is a cancerous tumor in West Asia that must be eradicated; this is possible and will happen.' During his trip to Europe, Netanyahu also emphasized the reposting of this tweet and Khamenei's order to the Atomic Energy Organization to prepare for uranium enrichment up to 190,000 SWU. It was during this trip that Netanyahu, alongside Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, called for the removal of this tweet and increased pressure on Iran to withdraw its forces from Syria. On Friday, Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, also stated in a meeting with Islamic Republic officials that 'the usurping regime that kills people every day has resorted to wandering to create a false and deceitful image of the Islamic Republic and the people of Iran.' Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, emphasized from the very beginning of the February 1979 revolution that 'Israel must be destroyed' or 'Israel must be erased from the pages of history.' On the other hand, after the remarks of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, the head of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's office, in 2008 about 'friendship with the people of Israel,' Khomeini's close associates stated that, in his view, the people of Israel are like Israeli soldiers. Among them, Mohammad Hassan Rahimian, a member of Khomeini's office, quoted the former leader of the Islamic Republic as saying: 'All Jews who have settled in occupied Palestine are in the same category as those soldiers and components of the usurping regime, and dealing with them is the same as dealing with Israeli soldiers.' Over the past 40 years since the 1979 revolution, officials of the Islamic Republic, especially Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president, have repeatedly spoken about the necessity of 'destroying Israel.'