Khamenei to Israel: You Will Not Exist in 25 Years

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aggressive campaign against the Iranian nuclear deal has made clear he believes the negotiations are a threat to Israel’s very existence.

On Wednesday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, took to Twitter to further those fears, claiming in broken English that “God willing, there will be nothing as Zionist [sic] regime by next [sic] 25 years.”

Khamenei’s threatening remarks about Israel were reportedly taken from a speech given in Iran on Wednesday. Embedded over a photo of what appears to be Khamenei stepping on a sidewalk painted with the Israeli flag, the tweet added that the “heroic and jihadi morale will leave no moment of serenity for Zionists.”

His tweets come just one day after President Barack Obama secured the 42 Senate votes needed to ensure his landmark nuclear pact with Iran cannot be filibustered by opponents hoping to derail the accord, in part because of fears about how it will impact Israel’s security.

Those American votes in support of the deal are apparently not enough for Khamenei, who also took stabs at the United States and said that Iran will never negotiate with Washington on anything other than this deal. “Americans in the Congress are plotting and passing bills against us,” he reportedly said in Tehran. “The Americans are not hiding their animosity towards Iran.”

The supreme leader’s comments take a starkly different approach to Iran’s role in international negotiations than those of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who announced Tuesday that he would be willing to participate in talks with the United States and Saudi Arabia about a resolution for the Syrian civil war. But Khamenei called U.S. leaders two-faced and made clear he wants nothing to do with any further talks because “negotiation is [a] means of infiltration and imposition of [American] wills.”

“One smiles and the other ratifies acts against #Iran,” he wrote. Then, using a quote made famous by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran’s Islamic revolution, Khamenei added that “some insist on depicting this Great Satan as an angel.”