Iran urges Palestinians to rise against 'cancerous' Israel

Iran’s supreme leader called on Palestinians on Tuesday to rise against Israel, and confront the "cancerous tumour" of the Israeli government until they were completely liberated.

"By Allah’s permission, we will see that this intifada will begin a very important chapter in the history of fighting and that it will inflict another defeat on that usurping regime," Ali Khamenei said, according to his website.

"From the beginning, this cancerous tumor has been developing in several phases until it turned into the current disaster.

"The cure for this tumour should be developed in phases as well.

"Until today, several intifadas and a constant and continuous resistance have managed to achieve very important phased goals.

"The Palestinian intifada continues to gallop forward in a thunderous manner so that it can achieve its other goals until the complete liberation of Palestine."

The supreme leader’s bellicose comments, made during a two-day conference in Tehran focused on its support for the Palestinians, come at a time of increasingly heated rhetoric between Iran, Israel and the United States.

While on a visit to Washington last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News that Israel and the United States had a "grand mission" to confront the threat of a nuclear Iran.

US President Donald Trump has already been highly critical of a deal hammered out between Iran and world powers, including the United States, in 2015 intended to partially lift sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme.

Iran says its programme is for purely peaceful means.

When Iran carried out a ballistic missile test in late January, Trump’s then national security adviser Mike Flynn said the administration was putting Iran "on notice".

Ordinary Iranians have been posting their concerns about a possible military confrontation between Iran and the United States on social media.

Khamenei did not mention any Iranian military attack against Israel in his comments on Tuesday and was focused on Palestinians.