Ahmadnejad: Israel an ‘insult to all humanity’

In another sharp verbal attack on the Jewish state, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Israel’s existence is an “insult to all humanity.”

The charge, reported by the Associated Press, comes amidst open discussion by leading Israeli policy makers as to whether their country should launch a preemptive strike against Iranian nuclear installations.

Iran also supports radical anti-Israel groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as Syria’s embattled Assad regime.

“The Zionist regime and the Zionists are a cancerous tumor. Even if one cell of them is left in one inch of land, in the future this story will repeat,” Ahmadinejad said of Israel’s existence during a speech in Tehran marking. The talk marked Iran’s Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, and was broadcast on state television, according to the AP.

Demonstrators were seen on Iranian TV holding up Palestinian flags and pictures of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The banners read “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.” A group in Tehran was shown burning an Israeli flag, reported Agency France-Presse.

“The nations of the region will soon finish off the usurper Zionists in the Palestinian land… A new Middle East will definitely be formed,” Ahmadinejad said, AFP reported. “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.”