MK Hilik Bar lambastes Europe and Kerry for not condemning ayatollah’s vitriolic comments.

MK Hilik Bar lambastes Europe and Kerry for not condemning ayatollah’s vitriolic comments.(ToI).

Thursday, a day after Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei told tens of thousands of Basij militiamen that “Israel is the sinister, unclean, rabid dog of the region,” Deputy Knesset Speaker Hilik Bar reprimanded the Americans and the EU for their failure to denounce Khamenei’s statement.

“Khamenei’s words clearly recalled the racist incitement against Jews, blacks, and others by the Nazis in the 1930s,” wrote Bar in a scathing letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. “It is sad and grave that we do not hear a firm condemnation from you.”

“A logical compromise is made with logical people and not with racist, bloodthirsty leaders who want to destroy a democratic UN member state…,” added the MK, who is also the head of the Lobby for the Promotion of a Solution for the Israeli-Arab Conflict. 

“It will not be easy to advance peace among the Israeli public when it feels attacked and vulnerable and does not merit the protection of its closest allies.”

A senior American official at the talks on Wednesday refrained from condemning the Iranian spiritual leader’s comments, but remarked that they were “uncomfortable” to hear and recalled “the decades of mistrust” between Tehran and Washington.

“I call upon and even demand from you to issue a condemnation and to stand up against these dark, inciting, and racist statements that came from Iran yesterday, and it would best be done sooner rather than later,” wrote Bar.

Iran is hoping to negotiate an easing of sanctions placed on the country by the West, which hopes to force it to roll back its nuclear program.

The latest round of international negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 powers (the permanent members of the US Security Council plus Germany) began on Wednesday, hours after Khamenei’s statements about Israel.

Also Thursday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said that Khamenei, “someone who uses the words of Goebbels and Hitler when talking about the Jews,” has shown that Iran “certainly does not aim to acquire nuclear power for peaceful purposes.”

Liberman called on the representatives of the P5+1 countries to “pay attention” to Khamenei’s words. ”The speech by Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, is the true face of the Iranian regime, not the false representation that [Iranian President Hassan] Rouhani and his people are showing the world,” Liberman said.Read the full story here.