Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei declared on Tuesday that Israel is a “cancerous tumour” and backed “holy Jihad” as a necessity against the Jewish State.
In the opening address of the regime’s sixth international conference in support of a Palestinian violent uprising against Israel, Ayatollah Khamenei hailed the Palestinian “resistance” against the “cruel occupation” in front of an audience of over 700 in Tehran.
Speaking in the presence of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, he said protecting Palestinian identity “is a necessity and a holy jihad”.
The Iranian Supreme Leader denounced what he called “compromise strategies” — referring to the Palestinian Authority’s endorsement of a two-state solution based on the 1967 lines — and called instead for “all-out resistance”.
Referring to the wave of deadly Palestinian stabbing, car-ramming and shooting attacks against Israelis that have been taking place since October 2015, the Supreme Leader said: “by Allah’s permission, we will see that this intifada will begin a very important chapter in the history of fighting and that it will inflict another defeat on that usurping regime”.
Ayatollah Khamenei has a long and frequent history of issuing violent remarks targeting Israel. In 2014, the Iranian Supreme Leader posted a nine-point plan of “key questions about the elimination of Israel” on his Twitter account.
The remarks came as Iran successfully launched “smart and advanced” rockets during a military test on Monday, according to Iranian news agency Tasnim, just weeks after the Trump Administration warned the state after it test-launched medium-range ballistic missiles in contravention of UN Security Council resolutions.
