A few weeks after Israel’s Ambassador to Mauritania was ordered to leave, Iran is trying to take control of a cancer research hospital in Mauritania, which formerly shared a long-standing relationship with the Jewish State. Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said during a visit to the hospital last week that the Israeli-funded equipment would be replaced. “Our enemies in the Middle East have reached the end of the road,” Mottaki said.

The hospital was founded in 2002 by Israel’s Ministry of Health, which was funded by several million shekels from the Israeli government and the American Jewish Committee. “The aim was to build a medical center that would be a gift from the Jewish people to the Mauritanian people. What happened there with the Iranians is very regretful. There’s no doubt that the Mauritanians acted out of spite,” a source associated with the project told the Hebrew-language newspaper Haaretz.