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Iran leader's call to 'annihilate' Israel sparks fury

Iran leader's call to 'annihilate' Israel sparks fury
29.05.2020 06:37

(CNN) -- A new document by Iran's supreme leader calling for the elimination of Israel shows that world powers must not rush into a deal on the country's nuclear program despite an upcoming deadline, Israel's Prime Minister said Monday.

"There is no moderation in Iran. It is unrepentant, unreformed, it calls for Israel's eradication, it promotes international terrorism," Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

"This terrorist regime in Iran must not be allowed to become a nuclear threshold power. And I call on the P5+1 countries -- don't rush into a deal that would let Iran rush to the bomb." (The P5+1 refers to the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany -- the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany.)

Iran insists it only wants nuclear energy. And Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, while calling for the elimination of Israel, said he opposes "a massacre of the Jewish people in this region."

Instead, he seeks a referendum. But in the meantime, "armed resistance is the cure," he says, calling for the West Bank to be "armed like Gaza."

The call reflects internal Palestinian politics as well. Iran supports Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza. Hamas' rival faction, Fatah, controls the West Bank. On Sunday, the government in the West Bank accused Hamas of bombing its leaders' homes.

Israelis were stabbed in two "terrorist" incidents Monday, leaving one woman dead, police said.

Annihilation call made through Twitter

The Iranian leader made his call for Israel to be "annihilated" on Twitter over the weekend. Mixed in with tweets insisting that Iran is committed to diplomacy on other issues, Khamenei posted a series of tweets slamming Israel. Among them was a document called "9 key questions about elimination of Israel."

While he and other Iranian leaders have spoken similarly of Israel in the past, the one-page document, packed with specific details, was new.

It says the "proper way of eliminating Israel" is for "all the original people of Palestine including Muslims, Christians and Jews wherever they are, whether inside Palestine, in refugee camps in other countries or just anywhere else, take part in a public and organized referendum." The "Jewish immigrants who have been persuaded into emigration to Palestine do not have the right to take part," he adds.

It's unclear who Khamenei thinks the "original people of Palestine" are, given that the region's history dates back thousands of years and includes countless waves of immigration and exile.

A June poll by the Washington Institute found that most Palestinians in Gaza oppose a two-state solution and want to work toward abolishing Israel -- a goal that is in line with Hamas' charter. A July poll by the Dialog Institute found that most Israelis support a two-state solution, Haaretz reported.

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