Mohammad Javad Zarif
Mohammad Javad ZarifReuters

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attacked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday night, accusing him of distorting history. On Saturday night, Netanyahu said before a reading of the Book of Esther for the Purim holiday that the Islamic Republic, as ancient Persia, is trying to destroy the Jewish people. He said the same during an exchange of Purim greetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Zarif wrote on the Twitter social media, "To sell bigoted lies against a nation which has saved Jews 3 times, Netanyahu resorting to fake history & falsifying Torah. Force of habit."

The foreign minister continued, "Once again, Benjamin Netanyahu not only distorts the realities of today, but also distorts the past -- including Jewish scripture. It is truly regrettable that bigotry gets to the point of making allegations against an entire nation which has saved Jews three times in its history. The Book of Esther tells of how Xerxes I saved Jews from a plot hatched by Haman the Agagite, which is marked on this very day; again, during the time of Cyrus the Great, an Iranian king saved the Jews -- this time from captivity in Babylon; and during the Second World War, when Jews were being slaughtered in Europe, Iran gladly took them in."