Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday denounced Israel as "the enemy" of the Middle East in comments leading up to World Al Quds Day, which Iran inaugurated after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to protest the existence of the Jewish state.
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"The Zionists are the enemies of the region and of the security of the Palestinian people. They are the enemies of the nations of the region and the tormentors of the atrocities in history which have displaced millions of people from their homes," said Rouhani during a cabinet meeting.
"The Zionists hold grudges against the Iranian nation… and have always tried to strike this nation," he added, apparently forgetting that Israel and Iran were regional allies prior to 1979.
Rouhani also claimed Israel is failing in "its two great attempts" to oppose the return of the United States to the 2015 nuclear agreement, and undermine Tehran's ties with neighboring states.
He also touched on talks to revive the nuclear deal, predicting the United States will soon lift sanctions.
"Today our people are witnessing the fruit of their patience and resistance in the Vienna talks and, in my opinion, as head of government, the sanctions have been broken and they will soon be lifted if we are all united," he concluded.
Also Wednesday, Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said that "Israel's security bubble has burst."
"Israel is suffering from a serious problem of decay … it will soon collapse from the inside. In recent months we have exposed their immense internal weaknesses. It has been exposed that their international shipping is vulnerable and can be easily severed. It was exposed that [Mossad] spies were killed in Erbil; that their missile factory exploded," Salami said, although it was unclear to which explosion he was referring.
Also Wednesday. Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a special address to the nation to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, added a mysterious request for the Iranian people to pray for him.
"In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful, I ask all of you dear ones to please pray for me. Pray for yourself and everyone," the 81-year-old Iranian leader wrote on his official Twitter page.
The mysterious and unusual request immediately sparked a wave of speculation on social media sites, where claims have been made in the past that the Islamic republic's leader has a terminal form of cancer.
According to French paper Le Figaro, Khamenei was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2014 and underwent a successful procedure to remove the tumor. Western intelligence agencies later confirmed the report.
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