BICOM

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Israel a “malignant cancerous tumour” during a social media tirade yesterday.

Khamenei used his Twitter account to attack Israel and clarify the regime’s stance towards the Palestinians. He said that Israel “has to be removed and eradicated: it is possible and it will happen,” before condemning “traitorous countries, who refrain from their great duty of fighting against Israel”.

Khamenei also said that “the Palestinian cause is not a tactical issue, nor is it a ‘political’ strategy. It is an issue of beliefs, an issue of the heart and an issue of faith”.

The Israeli Embassy in Washington poked fun at the tweets by responding with an animated image gif from the 2004 US high school comedy Mean Girls, which asks “why are you so obsessed with me?”

Israeli Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan said Iran should stop “wasting money on terror groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, and enough spewing hate”.

In a related development, the spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, Behrouz Kamalvandi confirmed yesterday that Iran will write to the IAEA to announce a substantial increase in uranium enrichment.

Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear agreement, Iran strictly limited its uranium enrichment capacity as part of the measures to ensure it could not produce a nuclear weapon.

To mark the 29th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khamenei delivered a speech and directly addressed the European signatories of the JCPOA: “I am telling the Europeans: Limiting our missile development is a dream that will never come true.”

“Tehran will attack ten times more if attacked by enemies,” he added.