Top Iranian politician says Israel should be annihilated

A senior Iranian diplomat says Iran has not changed its position on Israel.

The Iranian Parliament’s adviser for international affairs Hossein Sheikholeslam “blasted” British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond for his “interfering remarks” and told the visiting British diplomat: “Our positions against the usurper Zionist regime have not changed at all; Israel should be annihilated and this is our ultimate slogan,” according to Iranian website Fars News.

According to Fars, Sheikholeslam was speaking to reporters in Tehran on Tuesday, two days after Hammond visited Tehran.

Hammond told Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani in Tehran on Monday that past hostilities should be forgotten, Fars reported, and Sheikholeslam said regarding that statement that Tehran will “never forget the past and Britain’s colonialist moves.”