Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein addresses a regional conference in Rome, November 23, 2018 (Knesset spokesperson)
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zavad Zarif on Friday reportedly left a hotel in Rome, where he was staying, ahead of a speech that an Israeli politician delivered at a conference there.
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein claimed that Zarif left the hotel when he entered to deliver his speech, and charged that Tehran is seeking to consolidate its military presence along Israel’s borders so as to threaten the Jewish state.
“He can’t hear the truth, and deal with the fact that he represents a country that spreads hate and terror throughout the world,” Edelstein said in a Facebook post.
The Knesset speaker went on to say that during his speech at the Mediterranean Dialogues event, he blasted Iran, which does not share a border with Israel but which nevertheless “is trying hard to create a border with Israel, entrenching in Syria and Iran and the Gaza Strip.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, left, meets with his British counterpart (not seen) in the capital Tehran on November 19, 2018. (Atta Kenare/AFP)
There was no immediate comment from Zarif.
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The Iranian foreign minister spoke a day earlier at the conference where he focused his attention on the international nuclear deal, saying that Iran sees no point in fresh nuclear talks with the US without guarantees it will not renege on any deal made.
According to the website of the Mediterranean Dialogues conference, another speaker at the four-day regional cooperation event is Seyed Sajjadpour, an official at the Iranian foreign ministry.
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