Days before Iran agreed to a landmark nuclear deal, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s official website showed the leader trampling on a painted representation of the Israeli flag and condemning the Jewish nation.
CNSNews.com reported that the caption on the photo reads: “The Zionist Regime is Condemned to Vanish,” according to a translation by American Enterprise Institute scholar Michael Rubin.
Posted on Thursday, the caption also said: “The Zionist regime is a regime with very shaky pillars. The Zionist regime is doomed. The Zionist regime is an imposed regime and was created with intimidation. Nothing created with intimidation can last long and this one will not last long either.”
CNSNews said the photo was posted Thursday, on the eve of Iran’s “Quds [Jerusalem] Day,” also known as “Death to Israel Day” from the chants during the various rallies.
Rep. Ed Royce, California Republican, described these rallies in Iran, which is in the midst of an apparent current heat wave.
“It’s nearly 100 degrees in Tehran, but the crowds are undeterred,” Mr. Royce said in a statement, CNSNews reported. “A fireman was seen standing on top of his truck, cooling down the crowd with his hose while shouting ’Death to America!’ They are burning Israel’s flag, and one banner — reminiscent of Nazi propaganda — has the Star of David designed into the face of an ’evil Jew,’ wearing a skullcap with America’s stars and stripes.”
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“These rallies are a mass spectacle of racist propaganda, but they are no mere sideshow,” said Mr. Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “This is business as usual for the supreme leader, with the enthusiastic support of the so-called ’moderates’ in the Iranian regime, including President Hassan Rouhani, who was in attendance, and [lead nuclear negotiator] Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.”
On Tuesday morning, Iran and the six world powers agreed on a nuclear deal that offered a compromise to United Nations inspectors.
The Associated Press said Tehran would let U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to press for access to military sites as part of their monitoring duties, but Tehran would be able to challenge the request.
But Washington made clear that Iran must cooperate with the IAEA’s investigations before sanctions can be lifted, the AP said. The Iranians say they have never worked on nuclear weapons.
The deal, which should be finalized shortly, will then go to the U.N. Security Council for approval. The U.S. Congress also has 60 days to review the deal.
“But why should Israel worry,” Mr. Rubin wrote in his AEI blog, CNSNews reported. “After all, President Obama has made Israel’s security a red-line, and when are Obama’s red-lines not to be believed? (Full-disclosure: I tried to ask some Ukrainians this, but the Russians occupying their country had cut the phone lines, and all the Syrians I sought to contact had been displaced by Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons use). Then again, Obama from the start has been all about hope. So let’s hope that all Khamenei aims to do with the $100 billion windfall he is due to receive because of the pending nuclear deal will be to order millions more pavement murals of symbols of Judaism upon which Iran’s supreme leader can trample during his morning constitutional. Ballistic missiles? Nuclear warheads? What? Me worry?”
• Maria Stainer can be reached at mstainer@washingtontimes.com.
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