Iran’s Khamenei denounces Israel as a “cancerous tumor” in Middle East

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Friday, denounced Israel as a “tumor” to be eliminated and that the Palestinians should continue their uprising against Israel.

“The uprising by Palestinians should continue … fight to liberate Palestine is an obligation and an Islamic jihad … The Zionist regime (Israel) is a cancerous tumor in the region,” Iran’s top authority Khamenei said in an online speech.

“Today, the world is counting one by one every victim of the coronavirus across the globe, but nobody has asked who is responsible for the hundreds of thousands of martyrdoms, imprisonments and disappearances in Palestine and in countries where the U.S. and Europe have waged wars?,” Khamenei said.

“The long-lasting virus of Zionists will be eliminated,” he added.

Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials have called repeatedly over the years for an end to the Jewish state, including through a referendum in the region, where Palestinians are in the majority.

Khamenei reiterated the call in his speech on Quds Day, held on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and which was declared by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.