Ahlul Bayt News Agency -
A senior Iranian official said Tuesday that even with thawing relations with the West, Iran still maintains the belief that Israel "should be annihilated."
Speaking to Iran's Fars news, Iranian Parliament Speaker's Adviser for International Affairs Hossein Sheikholeslam said that contrary to statements by British foreign secretary that Iran would display a more nuanced approach to Israel, Iran's "positions against the usurper Zionist regime have not changed at all; Israel should be annihilated and this is our ultimate slogan."
"These powers admitted that the reason for their pressure on us is our position on Israel,” he said. “We told them that we reject the existence of any Israeli on this earth," Sheikholeslam added.
Hammond was in Iran Monday to reopen the embassy of the United Kingdom and had emphasized that "what we're looking for is behavior from Iran, not only towards Israel but towards other players in the region, that slowly rebuilds their sense that Iran is not a threat to them."
Tehran and world powers struck a deal last month on Iran’s contested nuclear program, and on Sunday Britain and Iran reopened their respective embassies after closing them in 2011.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond added that the two countries shared common ground despite a “deep legacy of distrust.”
Hammond told the BBC that “Iran is too large a player, too important a player in this region, to simply leave in isolation.”
-Iranian embassy in Tel Aviv?-
Meanwhile, residents of Tel Aviv awoke Tuesday to see a mysterious four-story-high banner near the city's Rabin Square with the Iranian and Israeli flags.
"Soon opening here: Iran’s Embassy in Israel" the sign read, posting a phone number for inquiries.
Some Israeli news sites speculated that the banner was put up by the Hamabul art group, who had posted an image of the banner on their Facebook page.
While many have taken the banner to be no more than a joke, it has already made the news in Iran.
Meir Javendafar, an Iranian-born lecturer in Iranian politics at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, told The Times of Israel that the Iranian news site Parsine had said that the sign was put up by "friends of peace."
"A group of Israeli citizens living in the Occupied Lands has put up a banner with the flags of the Islamic Republic and the Zionist Regime wishing for the establishment of relations between Tehran and Tel Aviv.
The banner says that very soon an Iranian embassy will be inaugurated. Since the signing of the nuclear deal, despite Netanyahu’s repeated rejections, a small number of citizens of the Occupied Lands have come to support the agreement and wish for the establishment of relations between Tehran and Tel Aviv.
This banner was put up by citizens of the Zionist Regime who call themselves friends of peace."
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