Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued yet another threat towards Israel on Monday, calling the Jewish state “a malignant cancerous tumor” in the region that must be destroyed.
“Our stance against Israel is the same stance we have always taken. Israel is a malignant cancerous tumor in the West Asian region that has to be removed and eradicated: it is possible and it will happen,” tweeted Khamenei.
The Israeli Embassy in Washington decided to poke fun at the Iranian leader in response, by tweeting a GIF asking, “Why are you so obsessed with me?” featuring Rachel McAdams from the 2004 movie “Mean Girls.”
The Israeli consulate in New York responded with a tweet of its own, saying, “Anyone who continues to support a deal with Iran that enables this genocidal regime to obtain nuclear weapons should be made to rewrite this tweet from its Supreme Leader 100 times on a blackboard, Bart Simpson style.”
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit had a more serious response to Khamenei’s tweet.
“The true face of Iran. The true face of Hamas. The true face of the ‘Great March of Return,’” it tweeted.
Khamenei on Monday also warned of the country's harsh response if attacked by enemies of Tehran.
"Tehran will attack 10 times more if attacked by enemies... The enemies don't want an independent Iran in the region... We will continue our support to oppressed nations... our enemies have staged economic and psychological warfare against us and new American sanctions are part of it," he said in a speech broadcast live on state TV.
The Supreme Leader has several times in the past referred to the Jewish state as a “cancer” and threatened to "annihilate" the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa.