Zarif after Pompeo remarks: Even Torah distorted to serve Iranophobia

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the Trump administration is giving voice to Israel’s falsification of the Torah to promote Iranophobia.

“Even the Torah is distorted to serve Iranophobia. What it actually says: Persian king saved Jews from captivity in Babylon. Another Persian king saved Jews from genocide. Genocide plotter hailed from Negev, not Persia. Persian king is only foreigner referred to as MESSIAH,” Zarif said in a message posted on his Twitter on Sunday.

The tweet came after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that it was possible God raised New York real estate tycoon Donald Trump to be president in order to protect Israel from Iran.

Pompeo traveled to Jerusalem al-Quds this week and made a controversial visit to the Buraq Wall, called by Israel as the Wailing Wall, in the Old City.

The visit made him the highest-ranking US official to visit the site with any Israeli leader and appeared to further signal the Trump administration’s support for Israel’s control of the contested city.

Asked “could it be that President Trump right now has been sort of raised for such a time as this, just like Queen Esther, to help save the Jewish people from the Iranian menace?” he said, “As a Christian, I certainly believe that’s possible”.

John Kirby, a former State Department spokesman, reacted to Pompeo’s remarks, describing them as “laughable”.

“Secretary Pompeo’s assertion that President Trump may have been sent by God to save Israel would be laughable on its face if it weren’t yet another indication that our Secretary of State recklessly crosses the line that should exist between church and state,” he said.