Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told an annual anti-Israel protest in Tehran on Friday that the Jewish state was a "cancerous tumour" that will soon be excised, drawing Western rebukes.
Washington said Ahmadinejad's statements were "reprehensible", while Paris viewed them as "outrageous."
Ahmadinejad's diatribe against Israel in his Quds (Jerusalem) Day address was the latest in a long line to have drawn criticism from Western governments.
"The Zionist regime and the Zionists are a cancerous tumour," he said.
"The nations of the region will
soon finish off the usurper Zionists in the Palestinian land.... A new
Middle East will definitely be formed. With the grace of God and help of
the nations, in the new Middle East there will be no trace of the
Americans and Zionists," he said.
The diatribe took place amid heightened tensions between Israel and Iran over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme.
The Jewish state has in recent weeks intensified its threats to possibly bomb Iran's nuclear facilities to prevent it having the capability to produce atomic weapons.
Iran, which is suffering under
severe Western sanctions, denies its nuclear programme is anything but
peaceful. Its military has warned it will destroy Israel if it attacks.
"They (the Israelis) know very
well they don't have the ability" to successfully attack Iran, foreign
ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by the ISNA
news agency.
"If they make a mistake, our nation's reaction will lead to the end of the Zionist regime," he said.
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