As Israel marked its 60th anniversary, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday called the Jewish homeland a "stinking corpse" doomed dissappear.
"Those who think they can revive the stinking corpse of the usurping and fake Israeli regime by throwing a birthday party are seriously mistaken," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
"Today the reason for the Zionist regime's existence is questioned, and this regime is on its way to annihilation," he said.
Ahmadinejad added that Israel "has reached the end like a dead rat after being slapped by the Lebanese" -- a reference to the 2006 war between Israel and the Shiite Hezbollah militia.
The comment by the Iranian leader is the latest in a string of anti-Israel, anti-American remarks he has made in recent years.
He has told the West to prepare for Israel's "imminent collapse," said the state was doomed to fail, and threatened that the state would "be wiped off the map."
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