Lotfollah Dezhkam, the representative for the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Fars Province, urged the elimination of Israel in a Friday sermon in the city of Shiraz.
The Islamic clerical firebrand declared, “The global arrogance led by America with complicity of Israel seeks to delay the realization of an important issue, which is the destruction of the Zionist regime.” Kian Meli, a news outlet opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran, quoted his remarks. Three regime-controlled news organizations – Islamic Republic News Agency, Fars News and Tasnim – reported on his speech.
Sheina Vojoudi, an Iranian dissident who fled to Germany to escape persecution, said, “The more the mullahs spread hate speech against the Jewish State of Israel, the more Iranian people realize that Israel is our friend, because the regime in Iran is the only enemy that we have. His hate speech against Israel is not surprising.... Ali Khamenei as the leader of the Islamic Republic calls for the annihilation of Israel and Dezhkam is his representative.”
She added, “We are tired of their antisemitism. We have a long history with the Jewish people and we want to be able to revive that 2700 years of friendship. The Islamic Republic’s antisemitism is lethal and endangers both Iranians and Israelis. The regime accuses Iranian dissidents of being Israeli spies, and calls the protesters against the regime’s corruption Israeli agents, and considers them against the national security. We want to normalize relations with Israel like other normal countries.”
Vojoudi added, “Why should our wealth be spent on funding terrorism against Israel and our people suffer from poverty? The democratic countries in the world, especially EU and US, should be aware of the Islamic Republic’s dangerous antisemitism. The regime targets Israelis and Iranian dissidents wherever they can. It is the ideology of the Islamic Republic. And Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, said in one of his speeches, ‘The Muslims must fight until the annihilation of Israel.’ This is what the Islamic Republic in Iran is about and must be stopped.”
The United States government, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, has classified Iran’s regime as the leading state-sponsor of international terrorism. Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt testified before the House Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism in 2020, calling Iran’s regime the top state sponsor of Holocaust-denial and antisemitism.
The Middle East Media Research Institute reported last year that Ayatollah Dezhkam said in a June sermon that aired on Fars TV, “America cannot be the main decision-maker when it comes to strategic matters in the world.... The sound of America being shattered and of its collapse is being heard all over the world. The shout of the Iranian nation [is] being heard from the mouths of the Americans themselves: ‘Death to America!’”
The audience responded by chanting “Death to America!”