BICOM

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has said that Israel is guilty of the worst terrorism of the last 60 years, worse even than the ISIS-inspired terror attacks on Paris.

Khamenei wrote in a letter addressed to Western youth in the wake of the Paris attacks that terrorism is “our common worry.” He accused the United States of “creating, nurturing and arming al-Qaeda, the Taliban and their inauspicious successors.” Iran provides financial and material support to terror groups including Hezbollah.

However, Khamenei reserved the focus of his ire for Israel. He asked, “What kind of atrocious violence today is comparable to that of the settlement constructions of the Zionist regime?” Although ISIS, said Khamenei is a “vile group,” none is more “barbaric” than Israel.

He wrote, “The oppressed people of Palestine have experienced the worst kind of terrorism for the last sixty years.” The letter added, “If the people of Europe have now taken refuge in their homes for a few days and refrain from being present in busy places it is decades that a Palestinian family is not secure even in its own home from the Zionist regime’s death and destruction machinery.”

Khamenei also claimed that Israel demolishes Palestinian homes “every day” and described the killing of Palestinian assailants as they attack Israelis as “terrorism.” He said, “Shooting down a woman in the middle of the street for the crime of protesting against a soldier who is armed to the teeth — if this is not terrorism, what is?”

Meanwhile, according to Reuters, France said yesterday that it expects the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to provide the “necessary detail” in a report set to be published this week on the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear programme until now. The report could impact the implementation of July’s long-term nuclear agreement with the P5+1 powers (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany). However, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano has indicated that the report may not be conclusive.